Monster Hunters
by Topen
Summary: The members of the Gold-ranked adventurer team, Morning Star, live in a world dominated by the rich and powerful. Seeking both personal power and wealth they battle their way towards their goal encountering many strange events as their world is turned upside down by the arrival of a powerful deity.
1. Chapter 1: Morning Star

**A/N: Hi all. This is my first story so I hope you enjoy it! Don't forget to provide feedback if you can. Favourite and follow if you enjoy too! This story will be updated regularly. It consists of multiple parts. Each part will be a separate stage of the adventure, like how the novels are divided into books.**

 **Part 1, Chapter 1: Morning Star**

The afternoon sunlight filtered through the trees blinding Kalelor as he gazed in the direction of the distant battle sounds. He squinted and listened carefully to the shouts and clangs of metal. Kalelor turned back to look at the other three members of his adventurer team, Morning Star, crouching in the underbrush.

"Sounds like someone's in trouble. Kobolds from the sounds of it."

Alfred Nozzeltoff, a giant of a man wielding a magnificent black beard, nodded solemnly.

"We should save them. If we can. Kobolds pose little threat to us."

Barker, an unremarkable man of average height and lanky build brushed aside his greasy dark hair and glared at Alfred disdainfully before spitting to the side.

A conciliatory smile appeared on Jake Taower's handsome face. He combed a scarred hand through his short blonde hair and stared at his comrades with his youthful blue eyes.

"Now, now gentlemen! If it is only kobolds, I could rush in there by myself and rescue the damsels in distress. I would, of course, expect the support of you lackeys when I do!"

"Cut the shit Jake." sighed Kalelor. "We need to take a closer look and see if they're worth saving first. I'm not about to charge headlong into danger before knowing that the reward will be worthwhile! Barker, you're up."

Barker met Kalelor's eyes, sniffed, shouldered his bow and swiftly disappeared into the trees heading in the direction of the battle.

"We should go immediately. The Gods would not approve of our delay." Alfred spoke insistently to Kalelor urging him to help the people in the battle immediately.

"Enough! Alfred, are we not just ensuring that the other party will be able to pay for our services? Your paladin order demands payment for their services too, right? I'm just ensuring that the risk is worth the reward. And there is no harm in scouting out the situation before we go running in there. I would hate for you to be ambushed by a troll."

Alfred harrumphed but nodded in agreement, looking displeased about the whole situation.

"Relax Alfred. Hasn't Kalelor always looked out for us." Jake piped in. "We've all benefited from his leadership. I know I'm glad I joined this adventurer team. We're probably one of the most profitable adventurer teams of our rank out there.

"Quit your brown nosing Jake!" quipped Kalelor smiling. He looking to Alfred. "Listen up, when Barker gets back we'll need to move quickly. If the opportunity is there for a nice profit, I want you to charge in and get the kobolds' attention. Look for the biggest one there and engage it. If you can't defeat it outright just delay it until we clear out the rest. Jake, I want you to clean up any outliers and protect the damsels. Barker and I will take out the rest. Ok, they are only kobolds so I don't expect you to get hurt! I don't want us to have to waste gold on potions on this one!"

Alfred and Jake nodded. Once they got down to the business of monster hunting, they were seasoned professionals. All of them wore a gold plate around their necks and could each take out E-class monsters such as Kobolds and Ogres. Together they could even handle high C-class monsters.

Kalelor nodded back and broke out into a grin. "Good, prepare yourselves!"

Jake took out his longsword and looked it over before sheathing it again and storing it on his back. He then started testing the edges of his many knives that were stored within easy reach on his body. _You can never have too many knives._ Jake grinned, remembering the old mercenary's advice. These knives had saved him more than once from a deadly situation. After checking his knives he stowed them back into his plate-reinforced leather armour.

Meanwhile, Alfred took the time to bless his kite shield and mace with holy magic. "[Holy Barrier], [Blessing of Judgement]." The buff on his shield would protect him from the blows of mighty beasts. The blessing on his mace would put the fear of the Gods into those he struck, causing them to become enraged at him. "[Blessing of Protection]." A soft golden glow appeared around Alfred. This final spell increased his armour's durability and his ability to withstand attacks.

Kalelor sat idly watching the others prepare while chewing on some bread. As a powerful magic caster who could cast many deadly tier-2 magic spells, Kalelor was confident of his skills. He noticed Barker returning from his scout. He brushed the crumbs from his light leather armour and picked up his plain wooden staff before standing up. "What's the situation? Those damsels look like they could afford us?"

Barker forced a smile, "Oh yeah! We got about two dozen kobolds, some of them elites, attacking a merchant caravan. The merchant guards have formed a barricade with the wagons, but they won't last much longer. If we're going to save them we better do it soon. Oh.. and there is another problem. Not only is there a tough-looking kobold captain, there's also a kobold magic caster!"

"Shit! It's like that huh?"

Kalelor swore as he considered the situation. Kobold magic casters were devious creatures using spells that snared and confounded their opponents while being able to cast supportive magic that rallied the other kobolds. In a large group like this, they were definitely the biggest threat.

Despite the high number of enemies and the dangerous elite kobolds, the merchant caravan was an incredibly lucrative opportunity for them. Not only would they receive a huge reward for saving the merchants, but the Adventurer's Guild would also pay a bounty for the kobolds they killed. In short, it was too good of an opportunity to let it pass.

"Ok, change of plans!"

Kalelor quickly detailed out a new plan to deal with the kobold magic caster.

"Let's hurry; we don't have much time if we want to rescue the damsels. Remember, follow the plan!"

* * *

"[Acid Splash]!" Kalelor clapped his hands together before drawing forth the magical power within him to summon a green ball of acid between his hands. Thrusting both hands outwards the magical acid shot out in a long arc that flew towards the enemy. The kobold magic caster was caught utterly by surprise as the highly corrosive acid splashed over him and the female kobold he was healing.

Debilitating pain immediately laced through the kobolds causing them to stumble to their knees and howl in agony. Mists of acidic fumes rose from them as their scales melted away exposing the muscles beneath. The kobold magic caster would not go down that easily though and quickly cast a heal over himself that neutralised the acid and caused scales to rise from within to cover him once more.

As if the howl was the signal they were waiting for, Alfred shielded Jake as they both charged out of the trees towards the kobolds. To Kalelor's right, Barker fired an arrow taking down one of the kobold archers. "[Fury of the Winds]!" Barker focused intensely as he used a martial art that significantly boosted his firing rate for a period of time and began to methodically take down the remaining ranged kobolds.

"Jake! You take out the magic caster! [Furious Charge]!" Alfred used a martial art to knock a kobold warrior to the ground with a shoulder charge.

*Crunch!*

Drops of blood speckled Alfred's bald head and beard as he withdrew his mace from the downed kobold's head before blocking an overhead chop with his shield.

Jake grinned as he broke away from Alfred. "[Agility Boost], [Evasion]! I got this!" Jake dodged arrows as he charged to the kobold magic caster. The kobold captain yelled something and suddenly two kobold warriors raced to intercept him. Jake frowned and knew that if he couldn't get to the magic caster before it fully recovered he would be rooted. Already he could see that the kobold magic caster had erected barriers against arrows and magic around itself and was trying to heal the female kobold.

"Shit!" Kalelor swore as he saw the kobolds trying to intercept Jake. "Quick Barker, with me! [Magic Arrow]!"

Jake was just about to launch a charging attack with his longsword against the two kobold warriors when he saw something out of the corner of his eye which forced him to roll to the side.

*Throom!*

Charged magic particles and an arrow flew over where Jake had just been and struck the two approaching kobolds in their surprised faces. Jake didn't stop to think about this though as he let the momentum of the roll carry him forward into a sprint towards the magic caster.

The kobold magic caster snarled as he abandoned the healing spell he was casting and begun to cast a snare spell. As soon as Jake passed the protective magic barrier, he flung a knife at the kobold, forcing it to dodge to the side and interrupting its spell.

"Break!"

Arriving before the kobold magic caster, Jake used both hands to thrust his longsword through its chest so forcefully that the kobold rebounded slightly off his crossguard.

Enraged by the death of his magic caster the kobold captain howled, barked orders to his troops and pointed at Kalelor. He then broke away from Alfred and charged towards Jake. Alfred tried to go after the kobold captain but had to duck away and retreat as a spear almost made a hole in the side of his head.

By this stage the kobolds had abandoned their attack on the merchants and were fully engaged with trying to repel the adventurers of Morning Star.

"Pfft" grunted Barker as he saw the two remaining merchant guards cower back behind the wagons. He fired one last arrow that was blocked by a fast approaching kobold warrior's shield before drawing his longsword. Barker was a ranger and was skilled with stealth and the bow, however, recently he had started to learn the longsword. It was useful to have a method of dealing with enemies that reached you as a ranged specialist.

"[Reinforce Armour]." Kalelor cast a spell on Barker making his leather armour more resistant to attacks. "[Stone Trap]!" Suddenly the ground beneath one of the approaching kobolds opened up causing the kobold to half fall in, trapping its leg.

"Alfred! We need some help over here!"

Alfred heard Kalelor's call for help but couldn't disengage from the 3 elite kobold troops surrounding him. "Damn it!" Alfred stepped back before bringing his hands together to cast a holy spell. One of the kobolds struck out with its sword at that moment, however, it harmlessly rebounded off of Alfred's armour. "[Judgement of the Righteous]!" roared Alfred and suddenly a holy light that contained an apparition of an angel struck down on one the kobolds causing it to drop to one knee in a daze. Alfred's mace lashed out towards the stunned kobold but one of the other kobolds knocked it aside at the last moment with its shield. These weren't average kobolds, they were elites!

Kalelor swore as he glanced over and saw both Alfred and Jake engaged in a fierce melee. The enemy had been tougher than they first thought. Kalelor grimaced and began casting his next spell. Two of the kobolds approaching him were blocked by Barker who had already sustained a glancing blow from an enemy spear. Barker wouldn't be able to hold them off for long, even fighting defensively.

"[Frostbolt]!"

An icy spear of freezing cold magic particles launched from Kalelor's hands and struck the shield of the kobold who had slipped past Barker. Although the kobold used its shield to block the majority of the magic attack, freezing cold magic particles still engulfed the kobold causing frost to rime its face and limbs.

 _Now die!_ Kalelor cast [Rock Spike] bringing his staff down to slam the ground. A sharp earthen spike erupted from the ground and pierced the frozen kobold from behind. The impaled kobold looked at Kalelor, eyes wide in shock, as it slowly drooped down, lifeless. With Kalelor now free of immediate threats he quickly dispatched the remaining kobolds that were attacking Barker.

* * *

Jake was panting and bleeding from several cuts along his ribs and arms. There were a few new gouges in the plate sections of his armour, but it had deflected the worst of the enemy's attacks. This was no mere kobold he had angered but a kobold captain! It was easily a high D-rank creature in terms of difficulty! Morning Star would normally fight monsters of this difficulty as a group to reduce the risk of injury. However, Jake had to fight it alone!

Both Jake and the kobold captain were low on concentration and both mentally fatigued as they had both used their martial arts throughout the fight. They were evenly matched, and completely focused on each other as they engaged in the deadly duel. The kobold captain was cautiously eyeing Jake from a distance looking for an advantage. Its short spear hung limp in its left hand and its sword was pointed outwards in its right. After several clashes with Jake it had sustained several deep lacerations to its spear arm.

The kobold captain snarled at Jake before suddenly dropping its spear and lunging at Jake with a thrust of its sword. Jake was an expert swordsman and instead of retreating, he leapt forward onto one knee and parried the thrust with his longsword. In the next instant, he tore a knife from his belt and plunged it into the kobold's thigh. As it gasped in agony, Jake used the power of his legs to push himself up and toppled the kobold captain. Jake quickly stepped around his disabled foe, stopping behind it's head. The kobold captain looked up fearfully at him as it tried to ward him off with its sword.

*Thunk!*

Jake watched dispassionately as the beast's head rolled away.

*Clap! Clap! Clap!*

Kalelor stood to the side with Alfred, smugly applauding Jake's performance.

"Well done! No really, I wasn't sure who would win for a second there." quipped Kalelor with a grin on his face.

Jake turned around startled and his expression quickly darkened, "You were just watching! I could have died!"

"Don't get so choked up, Jake-kun. Life and death battles are the best kind of combat experience for us adventurers! It is the quickest way to improve our skills. Besides, I was only watching for a short while. Don't worry; I would have stepped in if things had looked dire."

Alfred nodded, "You fought well Jake, well done! It's reassuring to know you can handle monsters of that difficulty by yourself now. You have certainly improved significantly over the last couple of years."

Jake smiled, "Don't go expecting that sort of thing on a regular basis now. I still prefer to attack an enemy that's not focused on me."

"No.. you've proven yourself capable now. There's no stopping the expectation from now on." Alfred joked. "Alright, come here and I'll heal your wounds. I've already healed Barker."

As Alfred cast his healing magic and Jake's flesh slowly started to knit back together, Kalelor walked over to the merchant wagons. Barker was busy looting the kobolds for any valuables as well as collecting their ears for the guild. Despite the difficulty of the battle, Kalelor was smiling. He was already imagining how much gold he would be able to squeeze out of the merchants.


	2. Chapter 2: Journey to Re-Estize

**Part 1, Chapter 2: Journey to Re-Estize**

The merchants and travellers who made up the merchant caravan spent the rest of the evening taking stock of the damages and repairing the wagons that had be damaged in the attack. Only two of the original 16 caravan guards has survived the kobold attack and one of them was gravely injured. It was clear to everyone that if Morning Star had not intervened when they did, they would have all perished. Kalelor used this fact to great advantage during his negotiations regarding the rescue reward.

At present the members of the adventurer team, Morning Star, were seated around their campfire slightly apart from the merchant's camp.

"The benefits from this expedition keep mounting! In addition to the generous reward the merchants gave us for their rescue, they also offered us a high-paying quest to escort them the rest of the way to Re-Estize!" laughed Kalelor. "We were headed there anyway!"

"An unsanctioned job?! Aren't you worried the guild will expel us for this?" Alfred raised his head and eyed Kalelor gloomily.

Earlier, Alfred had been asked to heal the wounded caravan guard. Unfortunately, due to the heavy restrictions and strict enforcement by the healing temples, healing the guard was as good as courting death. He was forced to reluctantly decline and not long ago he had heard that the guard had died. While Alfred was still a sanctioned paladin belonging to the temple of the God of Life, he was forbidden to heal the public when not on temple business. The only exception to this rule being the members of his own adventurer team.

"The guild's not going to expel us for taking on an escort quest! We're only keeping innocent travellers safe. If we pay our 20% guild dues, at worst they'll give us a warning." reasoned Jake absently.

Jake had only half of his attention on the group conversation and was busy trading coquettish glances with a merchant's daughter who was pretending to read a book.

"Anyway, I think its time some of these damsels met the hero who saved them from the big bad kobolds." Jake smiled playfully to the group before walking off in the direction of the main camp.

Barker looked up briefly and watched him go before turning back to the bowl of stew warming his hands. The caravan's cooks provided a better fare than what they normally ate on the trail. Barker supposed this had more to do with them being able to carry around an entire kitchen on a wagon rather than the skill of the cooks. He was sure he could have done better given the same setup and range of ingredients. Barker enjoyed cooking. It was one of the only skills he had which didn't involve killing. _Well.._ thought Barker, it involved killing to eat, which, he supposed was different than killing for money. _Maybe_. Barker's face darkened. In a bid to pull away from that depressing train of thought he looked around and observed the people moving about the merchant's camp.

Already Barker could see a few vestiges of his previous life scattered about the camp. Some he recognized outright, while others he could figure out from either the markings on their body or the way they acted. More than a few merchants here were associated with the notorious criminal organisation, Eight Fingers. Spotting one he recognized as a poison maker, Barker excused himself from the group and wandered over.

"You know.. I'm actually a nobleman! Well.. the 3rd son of one, anyway."

Barker overheard Jake as he passed by the area. Jake was busy flirting with a merchant's daughter and didn't notice him.

"Emily, I must tell you," Jake continued looking serious. "When I saw your merchant caravan under attack on the side of the road, facing certain death from those horrible kobolds, I immediately insisted that my comrades help me save you, even going so far as to be willing to charge in alone! However, our leader, the magic caster, was once a merchant himself and was quite sympathetic to your plight. When we charged in, risking life and limb, I alone took on both the kobold magic caster and the mighty kobold captain! Did you see the battle I fought against him? When he lunged at me…"

Emily leaned ever closer to Jake, swooning, as he recounted the earlier battle with dramatic motions of his arms. Eventually, Jake's arms settled neatly around her.

* * *

It had been three nights since the merchant caravan had been attacked. That morning they had finally reached the outskirts of Re-Estize. Kalelor sighed with relief upon seeing the massive bulwarks of the capital. He had forgotten how soul-crushingly tedious escort quests could be. _Still, the pay is good and the risk is low so I shouldn't complain too much._

In fact, the only member of Morning Star who seemed to have enjoyed this quest was Jake Taower. Kalelor couldn't begrudge the man for his playboy antics too much though. Jake was the youngest member of Morning Star and looked to have the most potential. In a way, Morning Star was lucky to have him. Alas, the merchants had already started to grumble about the flagrant disrespect Jake was showing. Luckily, Jake had the dual protection of being both a young noble and one of the few people standing between them and a monster attack.

Kalelor steered his horse to the side of the road and watched as the caravan rolled by. Everyone's mood seemed to improve as they caught sight of the capital. Although Morning Star had agreed to escort them, tensions within the caravan had still been high ever since the kobold attack. Seeing the walls of the capital greatly relieved them for it not only signified that the journey was nearing its end but also the safety of the King's knights. It was well-known that on the King's orders, the knights heavily patrolled the roads leading to the Capital.

Kalelor, of course, had still sent Barker out ahead to scout the surrounding area. He would not trust his life to the Kingdom of Re-Estize's finest. Kalelor had little respect for the Kingdom's military strength. Their _elite_ knights were only equivalent to Silver-ranked adventurers with perhaps a handful of royal guards and knight captains equivalent to Gold-ranked adventurers. Their only trump card was the Warrior Captain, Gazef Stronoff, who exceeded even Adamantite-ranked adventurers in strength. Kalelor sighed jealously as he thought about the legendary Kingdom treasures Gazef could equip in battle. _If only I too had such equipment! My revenge would be all but assured!_

As a magic caster Kalelor didn't focus entirely on equipment when deciding how to spend his gold on upgrades. It was often better for him to buy new spell tomes from the Magician's guild rather than new equipment. In fact, he hadn't even brought a magic staff yet, preferring to buy spells instead.

There were two main ways of gaining access to new spells within the Magician's guild; the first was to buy them with gold and the second was to earn contribution point by working for the Magicians guild. Buying spells with gold was incredibly expensive, so many guild members chose to work for the guild instead. The guild would give them a minimal living allowance as well as contribution points which could be used to purchase new spells. Kalelor himself had chosen to work for the magician's guild for a number of years, helping them with their research and fulfilling their contracts on magical equipment production. Only after one obtained the power to cast tier-2 magic spells could one earn a decent enough wage to buy new spells with gold.

Kalelor had all the tier-2 magic spells he wanted, however, and had decided that his next purchase would be to help him advance to a tier-3 magic caster. In fact he had been saving up for one item in particular. _Still_ , he thought with a covetous gleam in his eyes, _if only I could breach the barrier between tier-2 and tier-3 magic!_ Magic casters who could use tier-3 magic spells were quite rare and extremely powerful. They could easily take on dozens of knights at once! Not even tier-2 magic casters could stand up to them.

The biggest reason for this leap in power came from three tier-3 spells; Flight, Fireball and Arcane Shield.

Flight gave the ability to soar above the battlefield out of harm's way from non-ranged and magical enemies.

Fireball was an incredibly destructive spell that could blast and kill whole groups of foes.

Finally, Arcane Shield could protect the magic caster from physical harm at the expense of MP and was the biggest reason why a tier-3 magic caster could easily defeat a tier-2 magic caster.

"Kalelor!" Alfred came up beside him and slapped him on the back causing Kalelor to startle. "What are you contemplating now?"

Kalelor realised he had let the whole caravan pass him by and was at the back with Alfred who was defending the rear. "Ara.. Nothing my friend. Come on, we're almost there."

* * *

They arrived at the gates of Re-Estize at about midday.

While they were waiting in the line at the gate, Kalelor concluded his business with the master merchant of the caravan and strolled back over to the other members of Morning Star.

"Well, being able to haggle for your own pay certainly beats what the Adventurer's Guild charges us out for!" Kalelor jingled a heavy looking bag of gold and smiled. "They also gave us signed declarations of the quest and reward that we can take to the Guild. That should clear things up with them over the unsanctioned job. We might even be able to take the Platinum-rank test soon!"

"Are you sure we're ready for Platinum-rank?" Alfred questioned. "It's only been a couple of years since we were elevated to Gold-rank."

"Pahh! You've seen how much I've improved over that time!" Jake boasted. "I mean we just took down two dozen kobolds! That kobold captain was probably a C-rank difficulty monster!"

"You wouldn't be so confident if we had to face them when they were ready for us though." Barker grumbled.

"Look.." Kalelor intervened, "we're probably not 100% there yet, but we're one of the strongest Gold-ranked teams out there. What's more, we're only a team of four! I'm sure if we got a fifth member on our team we could easily ascend to Platinum-rank. In any case, Platinum-rank is something we all should be striving for. We'll join the top 20% of adventurers and as such have access to higher paying quests!"

"Speaking of pay..." Jake queried.

"Yes, yes, I know. I'll be dividing the pay equally among us when we get back to the Blue Doors."

The Royal Capital, Re-Estize, had many inns that catered exclusively to adventurers. Blue Doors was one of them.

"Now I want all of you to put on your Morning Star capes before we enter the city." Kalelor ordered as he stowed the gold safely in his breast pocket before fishing out a dark blue cape from his saddle bag. The Morning Star capes were dark blue with a golden six-pointed star in the middle. They had no magical effects and were long enough to come down to their calves.

"Stupid, bloody capes.." grumbled Barker under his breath.

"Hey!" cautioned Kalelor, "These capes are important tools to build our reputation. The more we promote ourselves, the more people will recognise us. The more people who recognise us the more likely we'll get specific requests for our services and hence we can charge more! I shouldn't have to keep explaining this to you."

Despite Barker's grumbling the members of Morning Star looked like true elites as they rode through the gates with their Morning Star capes draped about them.


	3. Chapter 3: The Adventurer's Guild

**Part 1, Chapter 3: The Adventurer's Guild**

"Your skills with the longsword have improved." stated Kalelor as he walked with Barker over the cobbled roads of the upper city to the Adventurer's Guild Headquarters. "You even managed to hold off two kobolds at the same time."

After they had checked in at Blue Doors; Kalelor divided the reward from the merchant's rescue and escort quest. They had then planned to spend the rest of the afternoon running errands.

Barker scoffed, "Melee combat.. I don't know how anyone enjoys it. Its much better to take foes out silently and from afar."

"Yes, I prefer that method too," smiled Kalelor. "Still, those lessons from Jake-kun have improved your overall combat effectiveness. It's not always possible for you to fight with a bow Barker-san."

"We've arrived," Barker abruptly ended the conversation as they walked through the wide colonnaded entrance of the Adventurer's Guild Headquarters.

Both Kalelor and Barker were carrying wax lined canvas sacks that were slightly pink at the bottom. Although Kalelor had used preservation magic on the contents, a foul stench still wafted up occasionally in the afternoon heat.

Approaching a female guild clerk he recognised, Kalelor hefted the sacks onto the clerk's desk.

"Kalelor Sterlingworth-san! What special gift have you brought a lady this time?"

"Nothing but the best for you Sara-chan," chuckled Kalelor as he begun to reveal the contents of the first sack. "I have here, two dozen of the finest quality kobold ears for your culinary enjoyment."

"Two dozen kobold ears? For culinary enjoyment? I'm starting to swoon already!" Sara replied playfully.

"But that's not all!" continued Kalelor dramatically as he untied the second sack. "I have also brought for your viewing pleasure, the head of the mighty forest troll who was terrorizing the citizens east of Re-Lobell."

"Arrh.. How fearsome!" Sara covered her mouth in mock shock. She then winked at Kalelor affectionately before proceeding on to business, "So.. it looks like you have completed the quest that Lord Lykon requested. Not bad, that had a difficulty rating of 40, right on the threshold of B-rank!"

"It was a challenge for sure," Kalelor began. "The troll had formidable strength and regenerative powers. We spent a small fortune buying items to counter it. When can we expect payment?"

"I'll start the paperwork right away. It should take about a day to verify that the quest has been completed, so come back in two days for the reward. I will give you the bounty for the troll's head now though."

Sara summoned an attendant and passed him the sack that contained the troll's head. After directing the attendant she turned back to her desk, took out the key from around her neck, and unlocked a small chest. "The guild pays a bounty of 5 gold coins for a troll's head." Sara counted out the coins and after Kalelor signed a handover document passed them to him on a small tray.

"Very good." Kalelor smiled as he added the gold to his coin pouch. "Now on our way back, we ran into some kobolds attacking a merchant caravan. I'll tell you the full story over dinner tonight if you like, but long story short, they hired us to escort them back to the Capital."

Sara raised an eyebrow at Kalelor's crafty attempt on asking her out to dinner but pointedly ignored the prompt. "So you took on an unsanctioned job while out in the field?"

Kalelor nodded, disappointed at his failed attempt. "Here is the letter of confirmation and the letter of completion, both signed by the master merchant of the caravan."

After looking over the documents that Kalelor gave her, Sara nodded and said, "Since you have supplied the required documentation I'll accept this quest on behalf of the guild and mark it as complete. Now you just have to pay twenty percent of the reward as per guild rules. I'll take it out of the bounty for the kobold ears if you prefer? The guild pays thirty silver per kobold ear."

"Yes that's fine." Kalelor watched as Sara put on some work gloves and started to count the ears. "So.. has anything interesting happened in the Capital since I've been away?"

"Not really," Sara said as she finished counting the ears, "There's been some rumours recently, about how Princess Renner is going to take on Eight Fingers, but it all just sounds like wishful thinking to me. There has also been mounting gossip about this new adamantite-ranked adventurer team from E-Rantel. Hey.. your team should really consider taking the Platinum-rank test soon. I think you're ready for it."

"Hmmm, well to be honest we've been thinking about it." Kalelor said as Sara began to count out the bounty reward. "But my team's not ready just yet. Soon though, maybe in a few months."

"Oh well, you always were careful Kalelor-san." Sara had finished counting and passed the coins over on a tray. "There you go. Just sign here.. and here.. and your done!"

"A pleasure, as always Sara-san." Kalelor said as he handed the paperwork back to her.

"Aha.. Oh and Kalelor-kun.." Sara leaned over the counter an poked him in the shoulder, "7pm at the Roaring Gulls. Don't be late!"

* * *

"How does this one look on me?" Alfred was trying on a full plate helm with a T-shaped aperture at the front.

"Well.." said Jake, "You look more intimidating without one. But that's the best looking helm so far."

"I like it too. It doesn't restrict my vision or breathing like the other full helms do and my beard doesn't get in the way with this one."

"Are you sure you need a helm?" questioned Jake. "Can't you just duck?"

"Haha.. very funny Jake. The helm is for the attacks that I fail to duck. Excuse me.." Alfred called over the shop assistant. "I'll get this one in steel, do you have any in stock?"

"Of course we do," said the assistant, "Steel is very popular. We sell the steel version of this helmets for 1 gold and 37 silver."

"Just out of interest," Jake asked, "How much would it be in Mythril?

"Mythril? Let's see," the assistant checked through a catalogue before coming back. "The Mythril version is 31 gold with a 2 week waiting period."

"What?!" exclaimed Jake, "That's an absurd difference! I could buy 5 full suits of the finest steel plate armour for that much!"

Armour, weapons and items became exponentially more expensive as they increased in quality. In fact, it was rumoured that the cost of a full-plate suit of armour of the hardest known metal, Adamantite, could bankrupt the royal treasury!

Of course, the difference in quality was also exponential. A steel sword wouldn't even scratch Mythril armour. Even more impressive was that high quality armour could even resist low-tier magic!

However, such equipment was merely a fantasy for the members of Morning Star.

"I'll just take the steel one for now." grimaced Alfred.

Alfred and Jake were roaming the dirt roads of the trade district. They had already taken off their main equipment and organised it to be professionally repaired and cleaned. Having only sustained minor blemishes and scratches the equipment would be ready for them to collect after finishing their errands.

Alfred tucked his new helmet under his arm as he walked. "Jake-kun are you going to be buying any new equipment? Some steel vambraces perhaps?"

Jake chuckled as he looked at his scarred forearms, "That wouldn't be a bad idea, however, I've had my eye on a powerful magic ring for a while now."

"Oh?" questioned Alfred, "What does it do?"

"It supposedly suffuses the body with vigour and strength granting a significant boost to both agility and attack power. Its called the _Band of Minor Ferocity_." Jake explained, an avaricious glint in his eyes.

They transitioned from a dirt alley onto a wide cobbled road.

Alfred's eyes widened upon hearing about the _Band of Minor Ferocity_ , "Impressive! Sounds incredibly expensive though."

Jake nodded suddenly tight lipped, "Oh.. it's expensive all right! I've been saving for the last year and I still needed to take out a loan from my father to buy it! One hundred and eleven gold!"

Alfred raised his eyebrows in surprise as Jake led the way into a magic item shop called _The Magician's Friend_. Unlike many of the trinket sellers in the trade district the magic items in _The Magician's Friend_ were each displayed on a single shelf behind a pane of locked glass. The whole shop had an atmosphere of wealth and prestige.

An old man wearing a conical hat and sporting a long white beard suddenly appeared from the back room. Unbeknown to them they had triggered an alarm spell when they had entered.

"Customers?!" said the old man almost as if he was surprised. "Welcome! Welcome to _The Magician's Friend_."

The old man's face suddenly darkened as he recognised Jake and the gold plates around their necks. "You! Back again to waste my time?" he scoffed.

"Settle down, gramps." Jake said happily before waving a rectangular certificate with the Royal Bank of Re-Estize's insignia stamped on it. "Is that anyway to treat a paying customer?"

Alfred choked, trying to suppress a laugh, as he watched the old man's face completely change several times in an instant. The old man first showed confusion, then surprise, then greed before finally settling on friendly as he started fawning over Jake.

"My apologies, milord! Please forgive my earlier behaviour! What can I, Dorente, do for you?"

The certificate that Jake held in his hands was of course, equivalent to gold, lots of gold. Due to the difficulty in carrying around large sums of gold, the lords and merchants of the Re-Estize kingdom either used Platinum coins or bank certificates to complete large purchases. The bank certificates could be made any value at the time of use and were imprinted with magical security features. Of course, the expense of producing these bank certificates led to a policy that they had to represent a value over one hundred gold coins and could only be issued to accounts that exceeded this amount. As such, Dorente instantly knew that Jake could afford his wares.

Jake's eyes lit up in excitement as he turned away from Dorente and pointed to a dark metal ring with tiny script etched upon it.

"I would like to try that one on."

"Of course milord! But I must ask you to attach this security manacle first, you must understand." said Dorente as he passed a slim metal bracelet attached to the cabinet via a long thin metal chain, to Jake.

Many magic item stores like _The Magician's Friend_ were backed by the Magician's Guild and naturally had state of the art magical security. Any would-be-thief would be horrified to discover just how tough the magically-enhanced manacle was.

"I understand," nodded Jake as he slipped the bracelet onto his wrist. Dorente whispered an incantation and the bracelet contracted so that it fitted firmly around Jake's left wrist. Dorente then unlocked the cabinet and fitted the dark metal ring onto the middle finger of Jake's left hand.

Jake watched with excitement as the ring's script started to pulse with a soft light before rotating clockwise with a steady glow.

Jake felt an unnatural strength emanating from the ring. It suffused his limbs with excess energy and power. Suddenly, Jake lashed out, punching the air with his right fist. He smiled, noting that not only had the power of his punch increased but also the speed. In fact, the _Band of Minor Ferocity_ , had increased many of his physical attributes and Jake felt that not only could he attack with more power and speed but he could also dodge and sprint faster.

"Arrh.. So good!" Jake whispered to himself. "Dorente-san, I'm definitely getting this!"

"Excellent choice milord. I must admit, that _Band of Minor Ferocity_ has been sitting on that shelf for too long!"

"Did you ever consider lowering the price then?" commented Alfred giving a wink to Jake.

"By the Gods no!" Dorente looked shocked. "How could I ever sell anything for less than it was worth? An outrage that would be! The _Band of Minor Ferocity_ is worth no less than 111 gold coins!"

Jake and Alfred looked at each other and shrugged. Old man Dorente was known for never budging on price and Jake had not expected him to.

As Jake signed the bank certificate and handed it to Dorente for verification, he had to keep looking at his new ring in order to stop himself from crying over the amount of debt he was now in.


	4. Chapter 4: The Magician's Guild

**Part 1, Chapter 4: The Magician's Guild**

Kalelor hummed happily as he walked through the entrance gate of the Magician's Guild. He was in an excellent mood after Sara had agreed to go on a date with him. Not even his regular debt payment to the banking division of Eight Fingers could sour his mood. After concluding their business at the Adventurer's Guild, Kalelor had handed Barker two coin pouches before they parted ways to run separate errands.

Kalelor showed his Magician's Guild badge to the guards at the entrance before heading in the direction of the main building. Upon entering the lobby, as was his habit, he went directly to the noticeboard on the left. He quickly scanned it looking for easy high paying jobs that someone else might have missed. Seeing only tedious low paying jobs he gave up and proceeded to the main counter further into the hall.

Marvelling at the wooden golems standing sentinel on either end of the counter as he approached, Kalelor greeted the robed youths on the other side. Kalelor briefly reminisced of his own time at this counter in his youth, working for contribution points, with them before getting down to business.

"I would like to purchase the tome, _Advanced Magical Theory - Tier-3_ , please."

Tier-1 magic spell scrolls had an average sell price of 1 gold and 50 silver. Tier-2 magic spell scrolls were even more expensive at 5 gold and 10 silver. They had to be printed on special paper that was a top grade resource. Thus it was very expensive for a magic caster to build up a sizeable arsenal of spells purely with gold. Of course, the Magician's Guild was also a teaching organisation that taught their students for contribution points. That was why many magic casters joined the Magician's Guild. It was also much easier to learn a new spell from a senior magic caster compared to a magic scroll.

Tomes explaining magic, however, were different. They explained magical theory rather than specific spells and could be used to increase one's intelligence. Often they contained repeatable techniques for improving a magic caster's mana reserves. Such tomes were valuable resources, and guarded closely by the Magician's Guild. However, they could be written on regular paper and the guild had produced multiple copies of these tomes. As such they were relatively cheap for members of the Magician's Guild.

"Oh?" replied the young man who was serving Kalelor, "I've had a flick through that one, Kalelor-san, and couldn't understand any of it!"

The young man gestured to a woman sitting nearby, who nodded before leaving to retrieve the tome. Magic caster's needed to be exceptionally intelligent because they essentially had to run abstract simulations and solve complex calculations in order to formulate spells. It was no wonder that this novice had not comprehended Tier-3 magical theory!

A short time later the woman returned with the tome.

"Thank you," Kalelor said as he received the tome which was clad in a soft dark leather with the words, _Advanced Magical Theory - Tier-3_ , stitched in gold on the front.

"It's our pleasure to serve. The guild charges 10 gold coins for copies of this tome."

Kalelor rested the tome on the counter before digging into his coin pouch and passing the coins to the young man.

"Thank you for your patronage, Kalelor-san, please come back soon!" the young man bowed.

Kalelor nodded before quickly leaving. He was looking forward to studying this tome, however, that would have to wait for now. He had a date to get ready for!

* * *

Barker entered the muddy alley before turning back around and checking to make sure he wasn't being followed. He then proceeded to take four more sharp turns through the backstreets of the lower city. Using a wooden crate that was blocking one side of the alley he took a running leap and launched himself up to a second storey balcony. Barker then climbed over the railing before quietly picking the door lock.

Peering through the gap as he edged the door open, Barker determined that the way was clear. He eased his way in and silently closed the door behind him. Spying the stairs to the third floor on his right, he slipped on a dull black ring. The ring was a gift from the owner of this building and could muffle his footstep. As such, he was able to silently walk across the normally creaking floorboards and up the stairs.

Barker paused near the top of the stairs and listened intently. He could just hear the scribbling of a quill on parchment. Knowing that his target was at his desk he activated a magical amulet that could shroud him in shadow up to three times per day. He dashed past the banister to the dark side of the large room that took up the entire top floor of the building. At the back of the room facing the stairs was a large desk with multiple chairs in front of it. Behind the desk sat a small man with a hawkish face focusing intently on some paperwork in front of him.

Barker made his way along the wall slowly. To an observer it would appear as if a patch of slightly darker shadows was edging along the wall.

The man at the desk showed no reaction as Barker reached the back wall. Arriving at the center of the back wall directly behind the man, Barker began to creep towards the man's back.

All of a sudden the man at the desk sighed and put down his quill. Barker froze in place, holding his breath.

"I've been expecting you, Barker-san. Honestly, I could spot that ridiculous cape from a mile away! I don't know why you just don't burn it." the man spoke catching Barker off-guard.

Barker blew out his cheeks before replying, "It was worth a try, master Kalign." Abandoning his attempt at stealth, Barker walked over to Kalign's side. "I've brought you Kalelor-san's payment." Dropping the coin pouch on the desk Barker thought back to how he had first met Kalelor.

Kalelor had gotten into a large debt with the banking division of Eight Fingers after one of his merchant shipments was sabotaged by a rival. After missing a few payments and ignoring the verbal warnings, Eight Fingers had sent an assassin after Kalelor. That assassin had been Barker.

Fortunately for Kalelor, and perhaps unfortunately for Barker, Kalelor had already developed a wide range of spells and expecting trouble had deployed a silent [Alarm] spell around his house. When Barker had tried to snipe Kalelor from the second storey of his house, Kalelor had been ready. With a telekinesis spell, Kalelor easily plucked the arrow from the air before using it to threaten Barker with. Barker had been absolutely shocked at the turn of events and completely missed his chance to escape before he was snared with a shadow binding. Given an ultimatum by Kalelor to either die right there or to serve him, Barker easily chose the latter option.

Kalelor had drafted up a mysterious blood contract and forced Barker to sign it. He had told Barker that if he betrayed him he would die. Although Barker had asked around afterwards, no one seemed to know anything about blood magic. Over the years Barker had developed the suspicion that Kalelor had duped him. Still, the possibility was there that it wasn't a lie and he wasn't about to test his hypothesis with his life at stake.

After using the blood contract to ensure Barker's allegiance, Kalelor had used Barker's connections within Eight Fingers to put a stay on his execution. Once at the table, Kalelor convinced the banking division heads to give him more lenient conditions on his loan. After all, Kalelor had argued, he was worth more to them alive then dead. They had agreed but told him that if he failed to deliver on the new terms they would send one the Six Arms next.

Suitably intimidated, Kalelor did not dare to renege on the new loan terms. Dragging Barker along with him, he formed the adventurer team Morning Star. That was over four years ago.

Barker fished out a second coin pouch from his belt and threw it onto the desk.

"And here's my payment as well."

Neither Kalelor nor Barker had the power to ever escape from the Eight Fingers' organisation, and were still tightly shackled. In return for him abandoning his role as an assassin in order to serve Kalelor, Barker had to pay a percentage of his adventurer's earnings back to Eight Fingers.

"Very good." said Kalign. "Is there anything else?"

"No master." Barker said beginning to walk to the exit.

When Barker was halfway to the stairs Kalign spoke offhandedly.

"How long will you be in town?"

"At least a month." Barker recalled that the others had planned to buy some equipment and train for a period of time before heading out again.

"Good," Kalign continued to focus on the paperwork in front of him, "during this time I will have work for you. Meet me at the usual place, two nights from now. Make sure you stock up with the necessary supplies before you leave today."

"I understand and obey, master." Barker said as he bowed before turning to leave.

* * *

"And you should have seen his face when I told him that the guild only accepted the right pincer of the spotted mountain crab as proof of bounty!"

Sara laughed at her story as Kalelor held her arm while they walked back to Sara's place. Kalelor smiled and thought on how well the date had gone so far. They had stayed at the restaurant so late, engaged in conversation, that they had only left when the restaurant had closed for the night.

"So tell me, what did that man do with the left pincer?" Kalelor continued happily, enjoying the moment.

"Well.." Sara began turning around to face Kalelor, "he was just about to leave, when I… What's that!"

Sara pointed, a look of shock on her face. Surprised by Sara's sudden reaction, Kalelor turned in the direction Sara had pointed at. Surprisingly, Kalelor was also shocked to see a huge wall of flames, hundreds of meters long, engulfing an entire district in the lower city.

"Arr.." Kalelor's mind was racing, trying to think of a way around this and into Sara's bedchamber.

"Yes.. Well.. Oh! I heard about this! Yes, if I recall correctly there was a rumour flying around this afternoon at the Magician's guild that the King was putting on a huge light spectacle tonight. It was in celebration of his.. Arr.. his new Royal Scepter! Yes that's it."

"Really?" Sara looked dubious. "It looks awfully frightening for a light show and isn't it a bit late for one?"

"Oh.. I.. I agree. Yes I agree, there's no need for us to look at it further. Whoo.. geez. This walk has made me really thirsty."

"Your thirsty?" Sara grinned, "We're at my place now, did you want to come inside and have a drink?"

Kalelor gulped and nodded, "Yes please!"

Leading the way, Sara unlocked the door to her townhouse and let Kalelor enter first.

As soon as Sara closed the door behind her, Kalelor ambushed her with a kiss, pushing her hands up firmly against the door.

Breathing in Sara's alluring perfume, Kalelor slowly parted his mouth, exploring Sara's soft lips with the tip of his tongue. He heard a gentle moan escape as he felt her lips part beneath his. She drew in a shaky breath and her knees started to bend. Without breaking contact he drew her hands up higher until her arms were stretched upwards.

Feeling her tongue make contact with his an electric thrill ran through his body. Gathering both of her hands in one of his, he slid his free hand through her long hair, enjoying the feeling until he came to the back of her head. Pushing her head towards him he felt her tongue slide deeper into his mouth.

Feeling the fire within him stoked to an unstoppable crescendo he let go of her hands and finding the curve of her arse he pushed her against him. Breaths coming in huge ragged gasps it became impossible to sustain the kiss. He rested his forehead against hers and fumbled with her dress. She bit her lip lightly as his lips drew away.

He held her eyes with his own, noticing a dark beauty spot just under her right eye, as he began to undo the buttons on the front of her dress. Leaning in to kiss her again he ran his hands over her smooth shoulders and slipped them under her dress. Slowly lifting the dress up and over her shoulders he breathed in excitement, savouring the taste of her hurried breaths.

Suddenly she stopped him and became still. Her face turned serious and her eyes appeared distant.

"Royal Palace. I understand." She said after a moment, confusing Kalelor. "I'll set out immediately."

Sara's eyes refocused on Kalelor and she buttoned back up her dress.

*Slap!*

"You fucking lying arsehole! How dare you try to get between my legs at a time like this!"


	5. Chapter 5: Darkness

**A/N: This chapter has a lot of overlap with the original novel so I skimmed over most of the details during that scene to prevent copying large sections of the original novel. I chose to focus on new perspectives and assumed the reader was familiar with the original novel.**

 **A/N 2: To those expecting more from their favourite characters from the novel: The fictional adventurer team Morning Star are far to weak to qualify as anything more than a statistic to Ainz and Co. This fanfic is about having fun with them experiencing the world as Ainz and Co. breeze through it. While I could write up some improbably tale of them meeting Ainz, Shalltear, Aura, Albedo or even** **CZ2128 Delta,** **it would most likely result in their immediate deaths, which might be fun but ultimately pointless, aka volume 7.**

* * *

 **Part 1, Chapter 5: Darkness**

Not long after Kalelor and Sara first saw the wall of flames, Sara received a [Message] from the Re-Estize Adventurer's Guildmaster herself. She had been ordered to summon as many adventurers as she could find, as quickly as possible, to an emergency meeting at the Royal Palace. Eventually Sara had calmed down enough to explain the situation to him and Kalelor had agreed to inform the adventurers at Blue Doors of the meeting. Sara had then headed off in a different direction, towards other adventurer inns scattered throughout the city.

Kalelor cursed his luck as he ran up the stairs to his room at Blue Doors. It had been a really good day for him. It had promised to be an even better night. Alas, those prospects were now up in smoke along with a good portion of the Royal Capital. Banging on the doors of his comrades rooms as he rushed by, he entered his room and started to put on his equipment.

"Fuck! What the fuck! Is someone fucking with me? Is there a God up there laughing his fucking head off right now?!" Kalelor had spit flying by the end of his rant.

*Knock! Knock!*

Alfred was in the doorway wearing only a pair of white cotton shorts. "Is there a reason you woke me up and are now cursing quietly to yourself?"

Yawning, Alfred rubbed the sleep out of his face.

"It's an emergency obviously.. Sorry to ruin your beauty sleep. Get ready for battle as fast as you can. If you want an explanation just look outside towards the warehouse district." Kalelor explained.

"Ok.. I'll go tell the others then." Alfred did a back stretch and left.

Tightening the straps on his leather armour Kalelor forced himself to calm down. _Maybe there's a way I could work this situation to my advantage. Kalelor the Demon Slayer has a nice ring to it. Hmm.. I'm sure even Sara would come around to that._

After double checking that his potion's belt was fully stocked, Kalelor completed his preparations. Picking up his wooden staff, he checked himself out in the mirror; admiring the way his Morning Star cape draped about his shoulders making him look majestic. He was going to a meeting at the Royal Palace after all and had to make a good impression.

He smiled and ran a hand through his hair combing it down one last time before heading for the door. Alfred had already passed on the instructions to prepare for battle to both Jake and Barker. As Alfred had to equip full plate armour he would naturally take the longest to get ready. Feeling a sense of urgency, Kalelor went to assist him.

* * *

About an hour later in a room packed with adventurers.

"Hurry up and wait!"

Jake joked to the other members of Morning Star. Indeed, spurred on by Kalelor's urgency, Morning Star had equipped themselves quickly before running all the way to the Royal Palace. Despite their promptness, they had been forced to wait in a room while the other adventurers trickled in.

Kalelor and the others did not find this amusing. All of the adventurers in the room had seen the wall of flames on the way to the palace and knew that this was no ordinary threat. The tension in the room was oppressive.

Kalelor tapped his foot annoyed that no-one had explained anything to them and only told them to wait in this room. The only person in the room who looked like they knew more about the situation was a youth in white armour holding a scroll. When several higher ranked adventurers had approached him for information he had politely declined to answer them. Annoyed at his refusal to explain the situation to them they had tried to intimidate him but were themselves intimidated when the man standing next to the youth barked at them sharply. Kalelor thought he recognised that man with the blue hair and foreign-looking sword standing next to the youth, but couldn't place him.

"Calm down Kalelor," soothed Alfred as he himself radiated an aura of calm, "I'm sure that they are just trying to gather the facts about the situation and come up with a plan to deal with it. They won't leave us sitting on our hands for too much longer."

Kalelor realised he had been winding himself up and forcefully calmed himself down using breathing techniques.

"Your right Alfred, thank you." he said sincerely.

"Check out that youths white armour. It's got to be a full-plate suit of mythril. I wonder who he is?" Alfred said to distract the others with conversation.

"Jealous?" replied Jake with a grin. "That there is Princess Renner's errand boy. Street trash who fancies himself a knight. That armour was a gift from the Princess."

"Bloody arsehole has himself some of the best equipment in the Kingdom and doesn't even deserve it." grumbled Barker.

It wasn't long after that the great door of the chamber was ceremoniously opened and a procession of women and a single man entered.

"It's the Warrior Captain himself!" Jake whispered, clearly excited. Jake had always aspired to be like the Warrior Captain, who was the strongest warrior in the Kingdom.

"There's also the Golden Princess," Alfred commented before suddenly exclaiming, "Look! That there is the holy Lakyus Alvein Dale Aindra from Blue Rose. Did you know she can actually resurrect the dead!"

"I did." Barker said with a glare.

"Quiet now. The guildmaster is about to speak." Kalelor silenced them.

"Ladies and gentlemen, to begin with, I'd like to thank you for being able to be present for this emergency meeting."

* * *

"They were killed by Jaldabaoth." said Lakyus.

"With a single blow." added Evileye, the adamantite-ranked magic caster of Blue Rose.

"Oh hell no!" Kalelor said backing away and looking desperately to his comrades. There was no way anyone would be able to go up against the demon that the guildmaster had spoken about. If it could kill Adamantite-ranked adventurers, who were at the peak of humanity, with a single blow then he might as well give up now. If the demon, Jaldabaoth, was this powerful then how powerful was the demon army that was attacking the warehouse district?

"Let's just leave. Let the demon have his magic item." Barker said looking for the door.

"Hold on. We can't just let the demons have free reign of the city. There's innocent people down there." Alfred insisted.

"Normally I am all for saving people," Jake added, "but, this just sounds like suicide."

"Do not be afraid!" Evileye shouted, hoping to placate the adventurers that had been stirred up. "There is a man who can do battle evenly with Jaldabaoth!"

Kalelor and the others looked around, searching for evidence of a man who could outclass the adamantite-ranked adventurers of Blue Rose by such a degree.

"From the Kingdom's third adamantite-ranked adventuring team that was recently founded in E-Rantel.." Eviley pointed at a large man in full ebony plate armour standing next to a gorgeous woman with long silky black hair.

"The leader of the adventurer team Darkness, the Dark Hero, Momon-dono!"

"Amazing! Look at the quality of _his_ armour!" Alfred sighed with awe. It looked like the durability of the armour easily surpassed mythril and might even be made of adamantite. Alfred shuddered just thinking of how much that armour was worth. Surely someone wearing armour like that could be no ordinary person.

"Forgot the armour, that woman has stolen my heart!"

Jake's stared at the world-class beauty next to Momon like how a man dying from thirst stares at a glass of water out of reach. A desperate gleam was in his eyes as if he had just seen the goal of his entire life.

Kalelor clapped his hand on Jake's shoulder and leaning close to his ear whispered, "No chance..."

Barker scoffed at this display and crossed his arms.

Evileye called Momon to the stage but he declined. Princess Renner then began to explain the plan to confront Jaldabaoth and his demon army.

"To begin with, I wish to form the adventurers up into a battle line, followed closely by a line of guards. Behind them will be the support line of priests and magic casters. In this way, we will advance into the enemy stronghold. At this point, if the enemy does not engage us, then we will have the adventurers advance into the enemy headquarters and suppress the area. If we are attacked, we will first determine if we can repel the attack. If possible, we will advance. If not, then I must ask the adventurers to retreat while drawing off the enemy. In the meantime the guards will hold off the enemy as long as possible. If the adventurers must retreat, then they will head here."

She pointed to the support line of the magic casters she had drawn on the map of the city.

"You will heal here, and from there we will see about mounting another attack."

After explaining the gist of her plan Princess Renner then answered the questions of some of the more strategically minded adventurers.

When it was revealed that Gazef Stronoff would not be joining them on the field of battle and would instead stay behind in the Royal Palace to defend the Royal Family, the adventurers started talking angrily amongst themselves.

"So the King and the nobles sit pretty behind their walls defended by the strongest man in the Kingdom and we are the ones who have to go out there and confront this threat." Kalelor complained.

"Damn, I really wanted to see the Warrior Captain fight!" Jake lamented.

"Nobility.. good for nothing except collecting taxes." Barker grumbled.

Alfred looked on but remained silent.

"They better be extremely generous when it comes to rewarding us for saving them!" Kalelor added, an angry glint in his eyes.

Lakyus stepped forward and beseeched her fellow adventurers to not be too hostile to the nobles and royal family because it was Princess Renner herself paying them out of her own pocket.

When Kalelor heard this he secretly cursed, the princess would not have as deep a pockets as the king himself.

Princess Renner then stepped forward and called the adventurer team leaders to the front to discuss a more detailed strategy. Kalelor naturally stepped forward, nodded to his team mates and went off to meet with the princess.

* * *

The other members of Morning Star did not let the opportunity to interact with so many high ranking adventurers go to waste. It was rare that so many mythril, orichalcum and adamantite ranked adventurers would be gathered in the same room. There was a wealth of ability and knowledge in this room and if they could develop the right contacts it could help them out significantly in the future.

Jake and Alfred stayed together, mostly because Barker had left them after spying a mythril-ranked ranger that he wanted to develop connections with. Barker might be able to receive invaluable training or advice if he could get on their good side.

The same might be possible for Jake and Alfred. There was no faster or cheaper path to improving yourself then from free training from a higher ranked adventurer. Together they met many of the higher ranked adventurer teams and had mixed results on developing relations. Typically they developed better relations with adventurers closer to their own rank.

Approaching the members of a platinum-ranked team called Snake Suits, Jake made the introductions.

"Hello there, I'm Jake, a warrior specialising in the longsword and close range. This big guy here is Alfred, a holy paladin serving the God of Life, he specialises in protection and containment."

Alfred nodded to the members of Snake Suits, "It's a pleasure to meet you." Spying a shy brunette giving them furtive glances, Alfred was pleasantly surprised to notice that she was a priestess who also served the God of Life.

"It's a pleasure to meet you as well. I'm Tomas, I serve as my team's shield and protect them from harm." said a burly man with dark hair and an honest face. "This here is Markus," Tomas said nodding in the direction of a small wiry man with black hair. "He has the thief class and is effective at setting and disabling traps as well as sneak attacks."

Markus nodded in their direction but remained silent.

Tomas turned to the woman who Alfred had noticed before and introduced her.

"And this is Katrina. She provides healing and support-type spells. She's also a famous talent holder. Her healing spells are twice as potent compared to other healers. We are extremely lucky to have her on our team."

Katrina blushed and look down.

"That's incredibly, Katrina!" Alfred said looking at Katrina with admiration. Unfamiliar feelings stirred within him as he looked at her and he was overcome with an intense desire to get to know her better.

Katrina shyly looked up, a small smile on her face, "Thank you, Alfred, it is kind of you to say so. We all serve the Gods in our own way."

"Some more than other." Jake said carelessly. "The other members of our group are a ranger called Barker and our leader, Kalelor, who's a magic caster. As you can see we are gold-ranked adventurers but we are almost ready to take the platinum-ranked test with the guild. We look forward to working with you today, and perhaps, in the future. After this crisis has been resolved did you want to meet up for some training and practice. It would even be good to just share our experiences over a drink."

Tomas nodded, "That would be good for us too, I'll discuss it with our leader when he gets back. Alright nice to meet you and good luck today."

"You too, Tomas." Alfred said with a respectful bow. The other party's willingness to engage with them was quite generous given their lower ranking.

Jake pulled on Alfred's elbow eager to keep meeting people. "Let's go. I see that Momon is actually being extremely generous and giving even copper-ranked adventurers time."

"Oh?" caught by the enticing offer to meet with the powerful adamantite-ranked adventurer who would be leading the charge tonight, Alfred let Jake drag him away from the members of Snake Suits. "I would very much like to meet him as well."

"Hehe, and that angel, the one they call the Beautiful Princess, is also next to him!" smiled Jake eagerly as he led the way.

* * *

 _This will be a difficult fight._ Kalelor walked back to the other members of Morning Star. _Momon will have to be victorious too or it will all be for naught. Still, the princess has been surprisingly generous. For gold-ranked adventurers she's rewarding 50 gold coins for those who participate and another 50 gold coins for those who are at the final battle!_

Arriving before his fellow team members Kalelor was puzzled to see Alfred patting a dispirited Jake on the back.

"What's wrong with him?" he asked Barker.

"He's gone and got himself squashed." replied Barker without elaborating.

"So harsh.." sobbed Jake quietly with his hands covering his face.

Alfred rubbed his back and soothed, "There, there. Don't take it to heart kid."

"Ok…" drawled Kalelor shaking his head. "Did you meet Momon from Darkness?"

"Yeah we met him." said Alfred, "He's amazing! Not only does he have legendary strength he even gave me some advice on some of the demons we might encounter tonight and how to counter them."

"Oh yeah? I heard he has a big reputation in E-Rantel. I also heard that he has a powerful tier-3 magic caster with him. If I recall correctly, her name was Nabe."

When Kalelor said Nabe's name, Jake let out a pitiful moan.

Kalelor glared at him and suddenly got angry. "I don't care what the fuck has gotten over you Jake, but snap the fuck out of it! We have the most difficult battle of our lives ahead of us tonight and I won't have your self-pity endangering us all!"

Jake looked up at Kalelor startled and embarrassed at being chastised. "Ara.. Your right. I apologise for my behaviour. It was shameful." Jake looked determined at the end. He swore in his heart that he would invest all of his energy from now on into become a powerful and respected warrior like Momon that a woman of Nabe's quality would respect.

*Clap! Clap! Clap!*

The Adventurer's Guildmaster clapped her hands before informing everyone that the operation would begin in one hour.

"In any event, once we leave the palace," she said, "just stick with me."

"That's reassuring.." muttered Barker.


	6. Chapter 6: Despair

**Part 1, Chapter 6: Despair**

An orange glow reflected off the sheen of cold sweat on Kalelor's forehead as he stood before the demon-spawned wall of flames.

"Do we really have to walk through that?" Jake asked.

"The temple priests said it would cause us no harm. Alfred you can go through first." ordered Kalelor.

Alfred turned and glared at Kalelor.

"Since.. you have the most protection from fire." Kalelor added quickly.

"Is that so.. Well, as a paladin of the God of Life, I also have a duty." Alfred said with determination as he looked at the flames.

The healing temples had sent the members of their priesthood and their paladin orders to assist the princess at her support line. The Magician's Guild had also sent idle magic casters over to help support the line. It could be said that the only combatants of these institutions who were not in the support line were those members part of adventurer teams that were forming the front line.

In other words, Alfred could either go willingly now as part of Morning Star or be forced to shortly after as part of his paladin order.

Alfred sighed and turned to look at the other members of his team through the gap in his helmet. He gave each of them a nod, which they returned and turned to face the flames.

"May the Four Great Gods protect me."

Taking a deep breath, Alfred quickly strode through the flames. He broke into a run halfway through as he felt himself uncomfortably enveloped by the demonic flames.

He was immensely relieved after he passed through unscathed and whispered a quick prayer of thanks to the Gods. He had secretly been terrified. The wall of fire had looked too scary.

"I'm alright! The priests were right, the flames will not harm you." Alfred called to the other members of his team on the other side of the flames.

Upon hearing Alfred's reassurance the other members of Morning Star breathed out in relief. They had been holding their breaths waiting for Alfred to respond.

Even with Alfred's reassurance, however, they still held their breaths and covered their eyes as they passed through the flames. Just because someone told you a fire would not hurt you, you would still fear to put your hand in the flame.

When Kalelor reached the other side he looked around. They were on a wide street that looked like any other of the Royal Capital except that it was deserted apart from the few adventurers that had come through the flames before him. The street was cobbled and ran all the way to the central plaza of the warehouse district.

Spaced every fifty or so meters was a oil lamp post that illuminated an eerie circle that seemed to highlight the darkness beyond. Some of the lamp posts must have been smashed because there was large swathes of shadows between some of them.

The buildings along the street rose high and were mostly exterior walls of workshops and warehouse. The occasional residential block showed signs of forced entry and battle. There were scorch marks around scaring the buildings and broken pieces of doors and window frames were scattered on the street. Kalelor surmised that the demons must have scoured this area breaking into the buildings from the outside.

When the 90-odd adventurers that were in their division had passed through the flames, Jared, the leader of a powerful team of Orichalcum-ranked adventurers, spoke out to them.

"Listen up! My team and I will be the vanguard for this prong of the advance. Mythril and Platinum-ranked teams are to stay close to us and back us up. Gold-ranked teams, you will cover the sides. Silver-ranked teams, I want you to hold the lantern poles and cover our rear. Iron and Copper ranked teams, you will search the surroundings for survivors after we pass through!"

As the leader of the only Orichalcum-ranked team in this area of the advance the gathered adventurers naturally respected his authority. The Adventurer's Guild was an organisation where the strong had the highest status after all.

Kalelor led his team to the right side of the street. Having the walls of the buildings shielding their right side they would only have to worry about being attacked from the front and left side. The heaviest and most intense fighting would be in the center of the line where the higher-ranked adventurers would have to bear the brunt of any assault.

On the way Alfred and Jake nodded to a team of Platinum-ranked adventurers who seemed to recognise them as they made their way to the center of the formation.

"Who was that?" Kalelor questioned.

"Just an adventurer team we met while you were with the other team leaders." Alfred replied. "We agreed to help each other out if we could."

Kalelor nodded absently as he and the other members of Morning Star formed a square formation. Alfred raised his shield at the front on the left side closest to the center of the road. Jake got into a ready stance with his longsword as he stood to Alfred's right. Kalelor took up position behind Alfred and Barker readied an arrow standing behind Jake.

The Silver-ranked adventurers formed up behind them holding the lantern poles aloft; illuminating the area for about 20 meters in front of them.

"Oh.. before I forget. [Dark Vision]!" Kalelor said.

He cast a spell on Barker that gave him the ability to see in the dark for one hour.

Barker would naturally need this because he had the best senses and could make the greatest use of the improved night vision. Also since he wielded a bow he would have the greatest disadvantage from the darkness.

"Advance!" Jared called out.

Together the adventures marched steadily down the street.

"So what type of demons did Momon warn you about?" Kalelor asked Alfred as he scanned the surroundings.

"He said to watch out for the the nauseating stench of the Hezrou Demon and to use [Unending Breath] magic to counter it. He also suggested that we be wary of attack from the sky as much as from the ground." Alfred replied as his eyes looked to the sky.

"Is that so.. I don't have that spell. Maybe we can.." Kalelor started to speak but was interrupted by a wave from Barker.

"I hear something." Barker whispered. "Sounds like.."

"Hellhounds!" One of the Mythril-ranked rangers shouted a warning and the adventurers tensed up. Shortly after shouts of warning arose as the hellhounds came into sight. They were easily seen by the glowing fire that dripped from there mauls.

"Tsk. Looks like a patrol of roughly 13 hellhounds has discovered us." Kalelor stated to his group. "Hellhounds only have a difficulty rating of 15, mid E-rank monsters. They should be no problem for us."

Indeed, the Hellhounds were both inferior and outnumbered by the adventurers on the front line. Although the majority of the adventurers that came through with them were silver-ranked and below and weren't directly on the front-lines, there were still about 34 adventurers gold-ranked and above who were.

Blessed with fire resistance by the temple priests previously, the Hellhounds died swiftly with the front line adventurers receiving virtually no damage.

Kalelor, of course, chose to do nothing, preferring to save his mana and let Jake and Alfred take down the lone Hellhound that made its way over to them. Alfred had first knocked it out of the air with his shield as it had lunged at him. Jake had then quickly followed up by chopping the beast's head off.

"Well that was easy," Jake said happily.

"Lets hope it continues to be." Barker replied gruffly as Jared called out again.

"Advance!"

* * *

The demons came in waves as they advanced to the central square of the warehouse area. The fighting had gotten more intense with each successive wave as if each wave previously was merely a test for the subsequent wave.

The variety of demons too had increased. There were great bat-like demons who could easily pluck a man from the ground and fly off into the night with him. There were bull-like demons that charged the adventurers and were able to break up their line and ruin their defensive formation. There were large bipedal demons with boar-like faces who could swing gigantic weapons that mocked even the strongest defence. There were lithe imp-type demons who weeded through the others with their sharp claws and easily took down unsuspecting adventurers.

There was even an octopus-like demon with hundreds of eyes that bizarrely only targeted female adventurers, plucking them from their ranks with its tentacles. After seeing the horrific fate of one unfortunate victim, the female adventurers made a silent pact and whenever one appeared they would join together and attack it with a vengeance.

The Hellhounds had also become a sizable threat. Not because they had gotten stronger but because they came in ever increasing numbers.

Forming the bulk of the attacking demons was a man-sized bipedal demon with a goat's head and legs. They carried crude weapons and had sharp claws and were much stronger than ordinary humans.

It was enough to make a grown man piss himself and huddle in a corner as he wept in fear.

However, the adventurers were a different class of people. They took on monsters that were more powerful than them and put themselves in danger as a day job. Even so, they were not totally immune to the terror that the demons imposed upon them.

"This is insane!"

Jake said as he received healing from Katrina. The adventurer's battle formation had long since crumbled under the pressure and numbers of the demons. Instead of fighting as a collection of many different adventurer teams they had been forced to become a large group fighting as one team. They currently formed a defensive ring with the healers and ranged fighters on the inside.

They still had a few lantern poles left in the center of the ring and they illuminated the area for ten or so meters outside the outer defenders. All the defenders could see outside the ring was a horde of demons that faded gradually into moving shadows and red eyes.

As the fighting had intensified many of the lower-ranked adventurers had been forced to retreat. There were only a few silver-ranked adventurers still in the center of the formation. The ones that had stayed could either heal or use ranged attacks.

"Don't speak. Focus on your breathing, it will make this go quicker." Katrina instructed while frowning.

Bleeding from several claw slashes to his face and upper body, Jake accepted the healing gratefully. He had been lucky not to die outright in that last attack. Other adventurers hadn't been so fortunate, some had either died instantly or died from their wounds before they could get healing.

In fact the only reason Jake has survived was because there had been a temporary break in the demons assault as some of them had stopped to eat the remains of a fallen adventurer. It was fortunate for him, Jake thought grimly playing with his new ring, that he had been quicker than the other guy.

* * *

"[Double Shot], [Accuracy]!" Barker activated martial arts that allowed him to fire two arrows at once for a period of time and one that greatly improved his accuracy. He had spied a ferocious 4-legged demon with bone spikes sprouting out all over its body, start to charge the adventurer's defence.

From his vantage point on top of a hastily constructed platform of stacked crates, Barker let loose two arrows from his bow. The arrows soared through the air, over the helmets of the adventurers at the front line, over the horns of the demons attacking them, and straight into two red slits on the charging beast's head.

Blinded and in pain, the beast howled letting loose an awful growl, as it veered off course ploughing through the ranks of demons and completely missing the group of adventurers. It caused a great amount of damage and confusion for the demons surrounding the adventurers before it was eventually put down by a large demon with an oversized hammer.

Barker didn't pay attention to any of this. After releasing the two arrows he had immediately notched two more and found his next target, abling towards them in the darkness. It was a massive horned demon wielding an enormous battleaxe. It was easily 8 feet tall and three times as wide as an average human. It looked like thick iron plates had been nailed to its flesh in some mockery of armour. Orange surface rust pitted the iron and the demon was covered in gore as it strode through the mass of demons towards them.

Barker released his arrows and they flew towards the demon's face. The demon, however, noticed the flight of the arrows and casually grabbed a lesser demon by the neck and used it as a shield. As it threw the lesser demon's corpse away it snarled before starting to run towards the adventurer's defence.

 _Oh shit. Looks like I made it angry._

* * *

"Incoming!"

Kalelor looked towards the sound of the shout and spotting a massive horned demon with a battleaxe charging towards Alfred's section of the defensive ring. Kalelor could estimate from its size and equipment that the demon had a difficulty rating of at least 45, a mid B-rank monster. B-rank monsters were normally only confronted by adventurers of at least Platinum-rank.

Kalelor looked around and found that he was the only one available who could render assistance to Alfred. _Goddammit!_ He had already used about half of his maximum mana.

Kalelor had been staying in the middle of the group conserving his mana and only using his magic in emergencies or when a large threat appeared.

He had not been idle, however, attaching a bayonet to the end of his staff and using it as a spear to help out the defenders of the outer ring. Using this method he had caught many of the engaged smaller demons unaware. Although there were magical staffs that could fire out spells at a significantly reduced mana consumption, Kalelor hadn't been able to afford one of those yet. He had to make do with a plain wooden staff which he used to supplement his physical defence.

Mounting the platform in the center of the defensive ring, Kalelor spotted Barker trying to take down the massive demon. He had managed to pepper it's body with arrows, however, the arrows appeared to be ineffective as the demon didn't even flinch as the arrows found gaps between it's armour plates. Kalelor tapped Barker on the shoulder to stop him and shouted.

"Let me take care of that one! You focus on the bat demons behind me!"

Even though they were right next to each other, Kalelor still had to shout in order for Barker to hear him over the cacophony of battle noise.

Barker turned around and nodded before beginning to fire rapidly at the flying demons swooping about in the night sky.

"[Reinforce Armour]!"

Kalelor applied an armour enhancing spell to Alfred before shouting, "Alfred! Raise your defence! You have incoming!"

Kalelor then began to cast crippling affliction spells at the demon hoping to weaken it.

* * *

Feeling Kalelor's magic spell take effect, Alfred cast his own holy spells that boosted his fortitude and defence before using the martial art [Fortress]. Seeing the massive demon charging towards him with an armoured shoulder he braced himself and raised his shield. _This.. is going to hurt_.

*Screech!*

The massive demon's spiked armoured shoulder barreled into Alfred's shield. The spike was deflected, scraping along the shield's smooth surface, deeply scoring it. The rest of the charging mass of iron and demon flesh knocked Alfred's shield into his helmet and sent him stumbling a few steps away.

Alfred's magically enhanced defence combined with the martial art [Fortress] was formidable indeed. It was even able to block the charge of the half tonne of demon muscle and iron. The demon's momentum had been completed halted and it had been unable to fully enter the defensive ring to wreck havoc amongst the defenders.

Slightly stunned from the knock to the head and with his shield arm and shoulder bruised, Alfred was surprised to discover himself relatively unharmed.

The defenders to either side of Alfred contained the demon from the sides as Alfred rushed back into position. He swung his mace at the demon to get its attention and it rebounded off the demon's thick iron plates. His attack had been rendered completely ineffective by the demon's armour and huge muscles.

A soft yellow glow emanated from the demon's armour where Alfred's mace had struck. This was a result of the holy enchantment Alfred had placed on his weapon. The yellow glow begun to pulse sending spikes of pain through to the demon. It growled and turned around to face Alfred in fury.

Alfred roared, "[Righteous Blow]!" Activating a martial art that caused the muscles in his arm to strain to their limit he prepared to strike a blow that had three times the normal power. Alfred aimed his mace for the demon's snout. It saw him coming, however, and thrust the iron counterweight of its battleaxe past Alfred's shield into his face.

Such an impact would have completely destroyed Alfred's face if he had not been wearing a helmet. As it was, he was able to turn his head to the side at the last moment and take a glancing blow along his helmet. Even though the blow glanced off Alfred's helmet it still left him dazed for several vital seconds.

In those seconds, the demon punched one of the adventurers in the head causing him to stumble back a step and then using the business end of its battleaxe the demon brought it down in an overhead chop, cleaving the man down to his midsection.

Retrieving the embedded battleaxe from the dying adventurer with one arm, the demon lashed out with its other arm knocking Alfred to his knees. Alfred looked up weakly and tried to raise his shield as the demon lifted his battleaxe for another overhead chop.

* * *

"[Maximize Magic - Acid Splash]!"

Kaleor clapped his hands together and poured an enormous amount of magical power into his spell. Drawing his hands apart he brought forth a large orb of terrifyingly corrosive green acid. Directing his hands towards the demon with the battleaxe, he forced the acid through a magical channel causing it to stream outwards at high velocity.

The maximize magic alteration of a spell significantly boosted the magical power of a spell at the expense of drastically increased mana usage. Seeing that Alfred was in danger, Kalelor would pull no punches.

The acid stream first hit the demon in the side of the head and Kalelor hosed it down the length of its body. The surrounding adventurers were also partially hit by the droplets of acid that rebounded off the demon, but their armour mostly absorbed it, becoming pitted where the drops landed. Fortunately, Alfred was able to use his shield to stop most of the acid as well. The same could not be said of the demon, however, who bore the full force of the attack.

The demon howled dropping its weapon as it tried to brush the acid off its face. It howled even more when its hands came away with melted skin and muscle tissue attached. The acid easily ate through the nails and flesh holding the iron armour in place causing it to drop away from its massive body. As it did it tore huge chunks of flesh away with it. The demon choked as it breathed in the corrosive mist that rose as its flesh melted away into a pinkish ooze that ran down its pitted bones. It gave a pitiful moan as it tried to stumble away, before it fell over and didn't rise again.

Kalelor sighed in relief. The spell had been powerful but it had also drained his mana to below a quarter of his maximum. He would not be able to use that spell again. He didn't regret using it, however, as he had managed to save Alfred's life with it.

Kalelor watched as Alfred took a healing potion and gave him a quick nod of thanks before moving to close up the gap again. From his vantage point he could see that the demons were still pushing forward trying to force their way past the defensive ring.

Spotting Jake sitting on a crate not far from him, Kalelor jumped down from the platform approached him.

"You still taking it easy?!"

"I almost died! Why don't you give me a break." Jake complained.

"Alfred almost died! You'll get a break when we all get out of this alive! Fucking get back out there!" Kalelor replied angrily, grabbing Jake by the upper arm and throwing him towards the outer defensive ring.

* * *

Thrust! Parry! Slash left! Slash right! Dodge back!

Jake had gotten into a good attack rhythm. It seemed to him like he had repeated these same sequence of moves about a hundred times in a row.

Individually, the lesser demons weren't that difficult for a Gold-ranked adventurer like him. Due to the defensive ring formation he only had to worry about enemies from the front. The variety of demons had initially put a strain on him but he had started to memorise the attack patterns and movements of the most common ones such as the goat-headed demon and the hellhounds.

Seeing a hellhound lunge at him, Jake thrust his longsword through its left eye instantly killing it. A goat-headed demon tried to stab him with a sharpened bone dagger and Jake deftly parried it to the right before slashing to the left across the demon's throat.

Two more demons charged him and Jake swiftly slashed back to the right taking the head off the demon coming at his right. He managed to jump backwards and avoid the the slash of the other demon's bone sword before stepping forward and thrusting his longsword through its neck.

Suddenly a small impish demon lunged at him, managing to bear him to the ground at it swiped at his armour with its claws. Jake let go of his longsword as he grabbed the imp by its head with his left hand and tried to push it off him. The imp clung tenaciously to him, however, causing blood to well up under his armour as its claws pierced his skin. Fumbling for a dagger with his right hand, he eventually managed to free one and stabbed the imp in the back of the head.

Breathing deeply, Jake picked up his longsword as he stood back up.

"Idiot! Look out!"

Jake was knocked aside as a massive hammer that must have weighed at least two hundred kilograms smashed into the ground where he had just been, turning the cobblestones underneath into powder. A platinum-ranked warrior pushed him away.

"I'll hold it here! Go get Master Jared!"

Jake stumbled back into the defensive ring as he watched the Platinum-ranked warrior take on the biggest demon Jake had seen yet.

He turned around quickly and hurried along to find the orichalcum-ranked adventurer.

* * *

Kalelor could see that the demon horde was thinning out and some of the smaller demons had even started to retreat as all the larger demons were defeated. _Looks like we survived this wave. I don't think we'll survive the next though. We had better retreat._

Kalelor was low on mana, Barker didn't have many arrows left. Alfred's armour and shield were a complete mess and in need of repairs. Jake's sword was notched and blunted and parts of his armour were completely missing. It was fair to say that Morning Star had done its part.

When the last of the demons had been fully repelled or killed, the adventurers didn't advance any further. All of the remaining Silver-ranked adventurers had been killed in the last wave by either flying demons or ranged attacks. The fact that none of the members of Morning Star had died was either a testament to their strength or luck.

However after the last attack it was clear they could not go on. While the Orichalcum-ranked adventurer team were all still standing and looking defiantly ahead, the same could not be said of the others. A frontline Mythril-ranked adventurer and a few Platinum-ranked adventurer had already fallen. Nearly all of the Gold-ranked adventurers had fallen or already retreated as well. Morning Star were the only Gold-ranked adventurers left.

It had only been three-quarters of an hour since they had passed the wall of flames.

"Hold here for now." Jared huffed as he rested his arms on his knees.

"Excuse me," interrupted Kalelor, "my team, Morning Star, cannot go on. We reached our limit in the last wave. We must take our leave and retreat back to the support line."

"Hmm? I saw your acid spell, it's a shame to lose you now," Jared replied. "You've done well to make it this far. I'll not see anymore die than needed, however. If you can't go on then you're free to leave. Be careful on your way back though, it's likely that some demons got past us."

"Thank you, Master Jared, we will." Kalelor bowed in respect to Jared before turning to gather his team mates.

As Kalelor and the others gathered together to move out, an armoured man with red-rimmed eyes halted them.

"Wait! Are you leaving?" said Tomas, his body slumped as if he had fallen into despair.

"Yes," replied Kalelor tiredly. "We've gone as far as we can go. It's suicide for us to keep going."

"Let us come with you! We can help out if there are any demons between here and the support line."

"Why? Are you retreating too? Aren't you platinum-ranked? Surely you can go on?" Kalelor replied insistently. He had planned to do some looting on the way back. If Snake Suits were to accompany them it would ruin his plans.

"We can't." sniffed Tomas letting a tear drop from his cheek. "Our leader was killed by a demon in the last wave, knocked over by a Hellhound, he was crushed under a giant hammer. I couldn't save him in time!"

Jake made a strange noise and Kalelor briefly glaced at him before looking back to Tomas.

A woman, Katrina, stumbled forward looking disoriented. Her white priestess robes stained red. Her eyes red and teary.

"Tomas and I are the only ones left!" she sobbed.

Seeing this, Alfred stepped forward and held Katrina as she cried in his arms.

"I will protect you with my life, Katrina. You're safe now." he soothed.

"Markus didn't make it either?" Jake asked.

"No, he was dragged down by one of the demons. He managed to kill it but died of his wounds too quickly for us to save him." replied Tomas mournfully.

"Can you still fight?" questioned Barker.

"I can," Tomas looked determined, 'But Katrina has used all of her mana and cannot continue. You must let us come with you, I'm not sure we'll make it back on our own."

"Alright." Kalelor agreed reluctantly, seeing Alfred give him a meaningful look. "You can join us in our retreat."


	7. Chapter 7: Light

**Part 1, Chapter 7: Light**

"Those last few demon waves were really intense. Way too close for comfort, at least for me."

Jake began a conversation as they walked back to the support line in a defensive formation. Alfred and Jake were out front. Next came Barker behind them followed by Katrina and Kalelor in the middle. Tomas brought up the rear.

"Agreed, I do believe that this has been the most monsters we've ever fought at one time. Those demons were absolutely terrifying. It's the first time we've fought demons too."

"Your first time? We've come across them before, but never so many or so powerful." Tomas added, relieved to break the silence and his spiral into despair.

While they talked everyone was still on high alert, scanning the streets in front of them for hidden dangers.

"It's strange, even though the battles have left me mentally fatigued and drained of mana, I still feel oddly invigorated. As if my equipment is lighter, my mind sharper and my connection to the Gods strengthened." Alfred looked puzzled at his mace as he lifted it up and down a few times.

"I know what you mean," said Kalelor. "I've used up most of my mana yet I also strangely feel as if my mind has expanded. I feel certain that if I was to rest I would have a greater mana capacity than before. It feels like new spell pathways have also opened up to me."

"That's a sign that you have gotten more powerful." Tomas answered the unspoken question. "Difficult battles are one of the fastest ways that humans can improve themselves. Doing so repeatedly will break the limits of one's own subconscious. Continuously breaking those limits is how adventurers get so much more powerful than regular humans. There is a limit though. The limit of humanity. Only a few highly talented individuals have ever broken through this and ascended into the realm of heroes"

As a platinum-ranked Adventurer, Tomas had spoken often with higher-ranked adventurers who had more understanding of this process. As such he had developed a good understanding of the phenomenon of breaking through the limits of one's subconscious.

"Is that so.." Kalelor looked pensive. "I've felt this way before, but only after long hours of magical research and study. I had just assumed I was having a moment of enlightenment, like I had finally comprehended the research I had been doing. This ability of humans to improve themselves is intriguing.."

"I don't feel any different though." Jake interrupted looking anxious.

"You must be the only one then." Barker replied with a smug smile.

"It's a mysterious phenomenon this ability to break through your limit. It doesn't occur often and it might not happen at the same time for everyone in a group." Tomas responded.

"Oh.." Jake looked glum.

"Quiet!" Barker suddenly said and held up his right hand to stop the group.

They stopped where they were and listened intently, trying to hear what had caused Barker to react this way. It wasn't long before they heard footsteps and a strange scraping noise heading in their direction.

Kalelor looked around for a place to hide. They were in the middle of a wide street surrounded by tall buildings with shear walls. The nearest alley was 50 meters in front of them in the direction of the approaching footsteps.

"Shit. Looks like we have to take them on." Kalelor stated. "Get ready. Alfred, Tomas, you go to the front and confront the enemy head on."

They quickly checked their equipment and waited in a ready stance for the enemy to come around the corner.

"Shit! I'm out of healing potions. Kalelor do you have any left?" Alfred frantically whispered.

Kalelor had naturally been careful in the previous fights and still had one of the original three lesser healing potions left. Still, he was hesitant to hand over such a precious life-saving resource in such a critical situation. After a moment of thought Kalelor decided that his odds were better if Alfred could survive longer and continue to take beatings.

"You better not let them past you." he whispered as he reluctantly handed his final potion over to Alfred.

Not long after, they caught sight of the demons as they entered the main street. When they did they cursed their luck. A hulking bipedal demon that had arms as thick as Kalelor's waist and was about eight feet tall came around the corner with 5 Hellhounds.

The large demon had massive claws at the end of its arms and a lizard-like head. It's skin was green and ridged and looked as tough as thick leather. There appeared to be a hazy mist that was discharged from boils that continuously popped along its back.

"What type of demon is that?" Kalelor questioned. The demons had not noticed them yet.

"It looks like a Hezrou demon. They are a high B-class monster. It will be very difficult but it isn't impossible for us to kill it with this composition." Tomas answered his face grim. "We should try to escape if we can."

At Tomas' mention of the Hezrou demon, Alfred gave Kalelor a sharp look. Kalelor nodded. This was the demon that Momon had given them advise about!

Suddenly one of the Hellhounds let out a warning bark and the other demons all turned to face them.

"Looks like escape is no longer an option." Kalelor said urgently. "Katrina do you have a magic spell that enables one to hold their breath for a long time?"

"Yes. Why's that?"

"Quickly cast it on everyone. We need to take down those Hellhounds quickly and then focus on the big one."

As Katrina started casting the tier-1 spell [Unending Breath] on the members of the group, the Hellhounds started to run towards them. The Hezrou demon also began to slowly pick up speed as its run turned into an unstoppable charge.

"[Fury of the Winds]" Barker activated his martial art and started to shoot arrows rapidly at the approaching Hellhounds. He was able to take 3 down before they reached them.

Kalelor conserved his mana and didn't bother to cast any [Magic Arrow] spells.

The two remaining Hellhounds reached Alfred and Tomas 30 meters in front of the Hezrou demon and were quickly dispatched by them.

"[Mud Trap]!" Kalelor used his remaining mana to cast a spell that turned the area in front of Alfred and Tomas into wet loose mud. The Hezrou demon was at its maximum velocity when it saw the muddy bog appear and could do nothing to avoid it.

The Hezrou demon slipped in the mud and landed on its face as its momentum kept it sliding forward at high speed. The adventurers parted forming a channel as the demon's slide turned into a roll as it hit the regular pavement of the street and launched it past the adventurers.

Having lost the advantage of its charge the Hezrou demon roared, releasing a sprout of hazy mist as it recovered quickly.

* * *

"[Judgement of the Righteous]!" Alfred used his stun spell but the demon only grunted momentarily before shrugging it off. Alfred followed up with a swing of his mace aiming for its nose, however, the demon blocked it easily with the back of one monstrous hand.

The demon became enraged at Alfred and lashed out in a vicious swipe. The power behind the demon's claws was enough to easily rend steel, however, due to the [Holy Barrier] spell, Alfred's shield held up and only resulted in half the force of the blow being transmitted to Alfred. It still blew him back several steps however.

"Fucking demons! [Penetration]!" Tomas roared and activated his martial arts, preventing the demon from following up on Alfred as he let loose a flurry of attacks with his sword. Each cut leaving inch-deep slices in the demon's heavily muscled chest.

In response the Hezrou demon punched out a mighty fist towards Tomas.

"[Fortress]!"

Using martial arts, Tomas easily blocked the punch with his shield before following up with a piercing stab of his sword.

The demon grunted and lashed out with both claws. While Tomas was able to block one attack with his shield, he was unable to mitigate the other and took it on his armoured shoulder. The demon's claws easily pierced his armour, crippled his sword arm and sent him flying.

"[Furious Charge]!"

Alfred shoulder charged the demon knocking it back a step and away from Tomas, preventing its deadly following up. Alfred took up the attack while Katrina healed Tomas.

Alfred dodged most of the demon's swipes, parrying the others with his mace and shield. He was able to take a few hits directly on his shield when he got in trouble but doing so would bruise his shoulder and cause him to grunt in pain.

The demon was very quick though and some of its attacks got through. Alfred was a skilled defender, however, and was able to use his armour to mitigate most of the force. Yet the fact remained, Alfred was taking on damage too fast.

Alfred could hear Jake on the other side of the demon, attacking its flank. Feeling that the demon was about to turn and deal with Jake, Alfred released a barrage of attacks, aiming indiscriminately. He let the spell enchantment on his mace provoke the demon to focus its attacks on him.

* * *

Barker had fired several arrows at the Hezrou demon but they had all harmlessly bounced off its thick hide.

"Goddammit!"

Barker swore as he frantically tried to think of a method of harming the demon. His equipment wasn't of high enough quality to hurt it. He could use the martial art [Piercing Flight], but he was already greatly fatigued and didn't have enough concentration to use it. _Poison then?_ Barker had many poisons on hand that could affect strong enemies. They were quite potent against humans and similar sized monsters but they would be ineffective against the hulking demon. They were also very expensive and Barker hesitated to use them here.

Bah! I'll have to use Winter's Embrace! Barker considered an expensive but powerful paralysis poison that would render a normal human completely paralysed in seconds. Against such a large demon, the most that he could hope for was to slow it down and make it sluggish.

"Kalelor! I'm going to use paralysis poison on my next arrow. But I need you to enchant it so that it will pierce the demon's flesh."

Kalelor looked away from the desperate struggle with the demon that Jake and Alfred were engaged in. He looked exhausted and wasn't doing much at the moment, except meditating to try and recover some MP.

"Hmm? A piercing enchantment? Let me try, I might just have enough mana left." Kalelor replied tiredly.

Barker handed him the sharpest arrow he had left and watched as Kalelor began casting the enchantment. Kalelor covered the arrow with his hand and began an incantation; intricate glowing circles appeared above his hand that caused the arrowhead to softly glow with pale blue light.

Kalelor stumbled back and dropped to one knee.

"It's done. Good luck!" Kalelor said as he passed the arrow back to Barker.

"Alright, thank you!"

Barker quickly put on some soft leather gloves and carefully applied Winter's Embrace liberally to the enchanted arrowhead with a small brush. Afterwards he put the poison and gloves back into his pouch and notched the arrow.

"Tomas! I need an open shot to its chest." Barker called out to Tomas as Katrina finished healing him.

Tomas rolled his shoulder, testing its movement as he looked over wearily, before nodding.

"I'll get that opening for you. Just don't miss!"

Glaring at the demon and aiming just below its left shoulder Barker waited for Tomas. Using a martial art that caused a yellow glow to appear around his shield, Tomas charged the demon and managed to shield bash it in the side of the head temporarily stunning it. With the demon protecting his head with both arms, Barker used the opportunity given to him by Tomas to fire his arrow.

*Thunk!*

"Yes!"

Barker exclaimed after watching the arrow slightly pierce the demon's flesh. The demon, however, simply brushed it away with its hand and seemed unaffected. Kalelor shot Barker a glare.

"Arr.. Well hopefully the poison takes effect." Barker rubbed the back of his head as he stood back. There was nothing more he could do in this fight. It was up to the others now.

* * *

Jake slashed at the demon's legs from behind trying to cripple its movement. Despite his efforts he had been unable to inflict serious damage on the demon up till now. The demon's skin was too thick and tough and his sword had been too blunted in the previous battles.

The demon had recently started to slow down and its movements became sluggish. Although Jake could land more attacks, they were still ineffective. Alfred and Tomas were nearing their limit and wouldn't last much longer. Katrina and Kalelor were completely out of mana. The adventurers could't fight for much longer, the demon had them beat in terms of endurance. This fight had to end now and it looked like he was the only one in a position to impact this fight. He had to step up.

Jake gritted his teeth and activated several martial arts in a row.

"[Evasion], [Agility Boost], [Focus Battle Aura]!"

Jake used all three of the martial arts that he knew. He had originally focussed on martial arts like Evasion and Agility Boost which increased his muscles' power and response time. With extended practice he could use them easily without experiencing too much mental fatigue.

The latest martial art he had learned was Focus Battle Aura. It enabled him to focus killing intent around his sword, greatly increasing its sharpness and damage, becoming equivalent to a magic attacks. This martial art was his trump card and he would only use it in emergencies because it consumed a large amount of concentration and greatly fatigued him, even giving him an intense migraine after using it.

Knowing that this was one such emergency, Jake didn't hesitate to use it now. Feeling himself become slightly woozy after using his martial arts, Jake slashed again at the demon's leg. This time the demon's flesh parted easily and the red aura that surrounded Jake's longsword cut deeply into the demon's leg.

As Jake crippled the demon, it howled and fell to one knee. In a spur of the moment decision, Jake used all of his enhanced agility and power to do a running leap, jumping towards the Hezrou demon's back. Avoiding the protruding spikes, Jake managed to kick off the demon's back and launch himself further up onto its shoulders.

Standing on the demon's massive hunched shoulders with a leg on either side of its head, Jake fought to balance himself. The demon thrashed wildly trying to dislodge him.

Both Alfred and Tomas reacted desperately as they saw Jake appear on the demon's back, quickly grabbing onto one of the demons arms each. They then put all of their effort into trying to hold it down, however, they wouldn't be able to do so for long, at most a few seconds.

Jake had to be quick. He reversed the grip on his longsword and using both hands lifted it high above his head before bringing it down with all of his power. Aiming for the nape of the demon's neck, Jake plunged his sword deep into the demon, severing its spinal cord.

Like a puppet whose strings had been cut, the demon collapsed.

* * *

Kalelor sighed in relief as the demon fell. He hadn't been able to do much in the battle due to his low MP. Magic casters were much more powerful than melee fighters in general but relied heavily on their mana. Once it was gone they were pretty much useless.

"Jake, well done for landing the killing blow!" Kalelor praised.

"Thanks," huffed Jake, finally able to breathe. After taking a few breaths he vomited and looking pale put several meters between him and the Hezrou demon's stench. "I think I felt that limit thing break after I killed it too!" Jake panted, holding his forehead in his hand and appearing like he was in pain.

"Fuck that was close. You guys work well together." Tomas said tiredly.

"You fight well yourself, Tomas. And we wouldn't have survived without Katrina's healing." Alfred added.

"Thank you for your kind words Alfred, but I didn't do much." Katrina said, bowing to him.

"Now is not the time for ass kissing." Barker interrupted which caused Alfred to frown and Katrina to blush. "We don't know if there are more of these demons around. We should leave as soon as possible."

"Before that, Barker can I borrow your sword?" Jake pointed behind him to his longsword that was still embedded in the fallen Hezrou demon. "Mine's useless now."

Barker didn't move and just glared at Jake silently.

"Barker give Jake your sword. He'll make better use of it then you will."

Barker turned and gave a long look at Kalelor before averting his eyes and handing Jake his longsword reluctantly. Barker seemed to mutter something under his breath but no one heard it.

"Okay.." Kalelor continued, trying to dispel the tension. "Let's head out quickly. I don't want to be ambu.. Wait.. Do you hear that?"

A loud rhythmic beating noise was coming towards them.

"It sounds like.. Marching?" Barker said puzzled, quickly losing his previous sullenness.

"More demons?" Jake screwed up his face and said.

"No.. I don't think so. I think that's people moving in plate armour. Could they be knights?" Alfred suggested.

"What would knights be doing here?" questioned Jake.

His question went unanswered as they waited a good distance away from the fallen demon.

They eventually saw the glow from many torches approaching. A line of hundreds of armoured knights came into sight, marching with halberds bristling outwards. In the centre was a group of powerful looking warriors.

Morning Star and the remaining members of Snake Suits stood by as the knights smoothly made a gap in their line and marched past them. A powerful looking armoured man stepped out from the center and approached them. He screwed up his nose as he came closer to the foul smelling carcass of the defeated demon.

"Congratulations on defeating that demon. I'm the Warrior Captain of the Kingdom, Gazeff Stronoff. Can you tell me anything about the situation at the frontline?"

The exhausted adventurers looked at each other before Kalelor stepped forward.

"It's good to see you Warrior Captain. The situation is dire. The group we left are severely pressed at the frontline and won't be able to continue for long. The fighting is so intense we had to retreat. We ran into this demon on the way back."

"I see. The king will not sit idly while his Capital is attacked. We march to confront this demon menace and to assist the adventurers on the frontline. I know you were retreating but will you lend us your strength one last time?"

Kalelor looked behind him, meeting the eyes of each of the adventurers in his group and took a silent vote. Jake looked excited by the Warrior Captain's appearance and nodded tiredly. Alfred gave a firm nod. Barker shook his head and scrowled. Tomas looked determined and nodded as well. Katrina was indecisive and shrugged.

"Aye." Kalelor said with a look of resignation. "We'll follow behind and help out where we can. But my team is exhausted, so don't expect too much."

Gazeff smiled and gave a nod. "Whatever you can manage is fine. Don't worry, we will defeat this demon threat!"

With that Gazeff turned around and resumed his place at the head of the group leading the line of knights.

"Into the fire once again." sighed Kalelor. _Still.. At least now we can get that bonus 50 gold coins!_ Kalelor gave a slight smile as he and his group started to follow behind the knights.

* * *

It took a further 15 minutes for the knights to slowly march their way to the front line. During that time Kalelor and Katrina remained silent as they focussed on recovering their mana.

The 4 prongs of the adventurers' line had converged onto a large plaza at the center of the warehouse district and were currently battling a huge demon army. Each of the 4 prongs stood alone, small islands of light surrounded by a dark demon horde. Seeing this, Kalelor was filled with despair.

The knights too were also shocked at the number of demons, however, Gazeff gave a battlecry and they immediately charged forward with great vigour. The impact of a charge of hundreds of armoured knights could not be understated. They bulldozed their way through the first 20 meters of the demon horde. They used their halberds to hack and stab at the remained demons separating them from the adventurer teams. Hundreds of lesser demons fell quickly to their relentless onslaught.

The adventurers cheered as the knights secured their flanks and with renewed hope faced the demons in front, no longer so heavily outnumbered.

With the Kingdom's knights filling in the gaps between the 4 adventurer' prongs, the humans started to push back against the demon army and slowly advanced.

With the numbers from the knights, the battle was much easier for the members of Morning Star and Snake Suits. They only had to take on a few of the lesser demons at a time and defend against some of the more powerful demons while the knights would overwhelm them.

There were plenty of powerful demons left, however, and as they pushed forward the knights and adventurers encountered ever more of them which stalled their advance. One particularly powerful demon appeared at the center of the demon army and confronted the Warrior Captain and the members of Blue Rose.

Other weaker, yet still powerful demons began to smash apart the knights battle line with contemptuous ease. It wasn't long before the adventurers had spread out along the whole width of the battle line and helped the knights confront these powerful threats.

Even with the individual power of the adventurers and the numbers of the knights, the humans still fought a pitched, desperate battle with the two sides locked in an intense melee. The outcome of which, hinged on a knife's edge.

And despite the fierce battle, where many adventurers and knights gave there life, everyone knew that it was only a distraction. The outcome of this battle would hold no significance if Momon the black, failed to defeat the demon lord, Jaldabaoth.

* * *

Kalelor was exhausted.

He had been fighting for the last 20 minutes and could do little more than stand and lean on his staff as he watched the battle continue in front of him. He had retreated to safety behind the knight's thinning line. _I've got to get myself a magic staff if I survive this battle!_ Kalelor thought to himself.

Magic staves were incredibly expensive but they allowed the magic caster to channel their magical power through their staff and use one spell at a significantly reduced mana cost. They were perfect for long battles. There were even some rumours that certain staves could amplify the power of all spells channelled through them.

Kalelor looked up at the sky and noticed that it was beginning to lighten. He sighed and wondered how much longer this could go on.

Suddenly, he saw two distant figures clash in the sky at ultra high speed. After exchanging a flurry of blows that appeared like an indistinct blur to Kalelor, the smaller of the two figures was knocked from the sky. Kalelor tried to follow its descent but even from this distance the speed was too great. He felt a tremor through the ground at about the time the figure would have landed and was dumbstruck by the power of the battle he had just caught a glimpse of. _That must be Momon and Jaldabaoth!_

Several more tremors and loud crashes occurred in the direction of the colossal battle. The surrounding knights and adventurers were all amazed as they felt tremors through the ground that coincided with dull thumps in the distance. It could only be from the fierce battle between the adamantite-ranked adventurer, Momon, and the demon, Jaldabaoth.

After a time the tremors stopped. Soon after Kalelor noticed that the more powerful demons were all retreating rapidly to one of the warehouses in the distance. With the retreat of the powerful demons the lesser demons could not stand up to the combined might of the knights and adventurers and were quickly scythed apart. Noticing this turn in the flow of battle the adventurers and knights gave a tired cheer and renewed their efforts for one more burst.

Kalelor walked forward eagerly with the surviving knights and adventurers as they converged towards the back end of the huge central plaza.

In front of him was a battlefield that looked absolutely devastated. The flagstones were scorched and cracked where they were still intact. There were several deep impact craters and long lines of crushed stone. There was even a large pit of sand. The buildings on either side of the plaza had either collapsed outright or were pitted with spell damage, scorch marks and even large impact holes.

Standing majestically in the middle of all this with his dark armour badly damaged and a woman on either side, was Momon, the dark hero.

The air was charged with tension as Kalelor and the others approached him and waited expectantly for Momon to lead the victory cheer.

 _Why is he waiting?_ Kalelor thought to himself puzzled, as the moment dragged on.

Suddenly, as the morning sun rose over the horizon and bathed everything in a red golden glow, Momon thrust his sword towards the sky and let out a mighty victory cry.

Kalelor was absolutely overwhelmed by Momon's poetic gesture and shed a tear as he too shouted in celebration, chanting Momon's name. Kalelor was not just happy to be alive, but also to be a part of such a lucrative, historic moment.

* * *

 **A/N: That's the end of Part 1! Thank you to everyone who's read this with special thanks to those who reviewed, your feedback is always welcome.**


	8. Chapter 8: The Defiled

**Intermission, Chapter 8: The Defiled**

~42 years ago~

~Deep in the Azerlisia Mountains~

"We've arrived. Stay close to me from now on Vladimir."

"Yes Master."

Two hooded figures were buffeted by strong winds as they stood at the edge of a precipice on a snow-covered mountain above a forested valley. Behind them lay a narrow ledge that clung precariously to the the cliff as it snaked its way down to the valley floor.

"This place is very remote, Master Zuranon. Aren't your precautions too much?"

"Nonsense! Be quiet. You talk too much."

The man called Zuranon placed a gloved hand on the wall of the cliff and slid it along. Suddenly, his hand vanished into the wall, revealing the illusion. There was a narrow passage beyond, leading further into the dark depths of the mountain.

Zuranon led the way into the passage as Vladimir followed closely behind him. Eventually they came to a small cavern with five identical exits. Above each exit were magically glowing symbols that Vladimir didn't recognise. There was also a pedestal in the centre of the room that had softly glowing script etched onto its surface.

"Vladimir, you are the first and most promising of my apprentices, you're also the first to be invited here, so I will tell you about this room. Our destination lies down only one of these exits, the other four lead to deadly traps. The configuration of this room changes each time someone passes through it. The key to solving which exit to take lies on this pedestal. Can you read what it says?"

"No master. I've never seen anything like these symbols before."

"I knew as much. This script is in the language of my original world. It describes a worded math problem. The answer will be the number above the correct exit. "

Vladimir squinted at the symbols trying to make sense of them. Even though his master had told him the secret of this room, he would still have no hope of choosing the correct path.

"This language, combined with the difficulty of the math problem, make it almost impossible for an inhabitant of this world to decipher the correct path." Zuranon said smugly.

He then looked closely at the symbols on the pedestal for several moments.

"Hmm.. 42? Of course.. I should have known."

Zuranon smiled to himself and headed to an exit on the left. Vladimir silently following behind him, heard a deep grinding noise coming from the room as they left.

"I spent many years building this place." Zuranon explained as they walked deeper into the mountain. "I created many skeleton workers to excavate these tunnels and many skeleton warriors to guard it. I even created a few elder liches to watch over it."

"Incredible Master. To think that you had built such a place. Wait.. you can create elder liches?"

"Of course. But I must warn you.. they make terrible company. Look.. We've arrived at the core facility."

Vladimir looked ahead and shuddered, drawing closer to his master's shadow. In front of him were two armoured skeletons and a sinister-looking elder lich. They appeared to be guarding a riveted iron door.

Zuranon approached unafraid and the undead creatures parted before him. He produced a large iron key from out of nowhere and used it to unlock the door.

"Welcome back, master." drawled the elder lich in a lifeless voice.

Zuranon gave a grimace and ignored it as he continued to walk through the door.

Vladimir hurried after him into a large open space. Surrounding the iron door on the other side was a small fort. Arranged atop the parapets facing the door were a dozen skeleton archers, arrows aimed in their direction. Skeleton warriors were scattered haphazardly around the area in front of the fort, wielding swords, spears and other common weapons.

"Just in case an intruder or prisoner made it this far." Zuranon answered Vladimir's unspoken question.

Zuranon walked unharmed through the gate of the fort and led Vladimir to the top of a ramp that descended into an enormous cavern.

Vladimir shuddered again, feeling waves of evil aura emanate up from below. He could see tiny figures moving about in the distance and what appeared to be warehouses over to one side.

"Magnificent, isn't it? This is where I have spent much of my life doing research on the undead of this world. Do you see those warehouses over there? I've captured many humans and transported them here. One of my elder liches set up a breeding program. These slaves and captives make fantastic test subjects. I've even created my own undead breeding area over there as well."

Zuranon pointed to an area of the cavern and Vladimir felt a particularly strong aura of malice coming off it.

They walked down the ramp and to a small cluster of buildings. Entering the largest one, Vladimir came face to face with two elder liches gathered around a tall crystal cylinder filled with an amber fluid. A small fetus appeared to be floating in the center of it with breathing apparatus attached to its mouth.

"This is the main laboratory. I have prepared some contingencies in case the main plan fails. This way now."

Zuranon opened a door to a large office off to the side of the main part of the laboratory.

"Sit down." Zuranon pointed to a chair as he sat behind his desk.

Vladimir looked around the room seeing many items that he couldn't even begin to guess the function of. Sighing, he took a seat.

"This is an amazing operation you have here Master!"

"Yes, I have spent many, many years here. I'm old, I'm dying. I've run out of time. I've been forced to rush to the final stage of the plan."

"Have you finally figured out how to achieve immortality?"

"Yes, I did so a while ago. If I had been braver back then, maybe I wouldn't have waited so long."

Zuranon abruptly withdrew a grimoire and a flask of black liquid that had white wisps floating about in it.

"This is a grimoire from my old world, it contains a ritual that will allow me to change race into an undead. This flask contains the concentrated malice of ten thousand tortured souls. With these two items, I should be able to become a powerful undead and achieve immortality."

A gleeful glint appeared in Zuranon's eyes as he looked at the two objects and Vladimir shivered unconsciously at the sight.

"However, the elder liches I created are unable to learn new spells. That's why I need you to cast that spell I taught you. You're the key I've been missing for this ritual. I have already gifted the knowledge to become an undead to my other apprentices, however, it is a much weaker imitation of the true ritual. Faithfully complete this task and I will gift to you the true path to immortality."

"I am grateful for the opportunity Master."

"Good, get some rest. The ritual will begin at midnight."

* * *

~Later that night...~

Zuranon had led Vladimir to a large marked circle in the middle of the undead breeding area. There were armoured skeletons, and even an elder lich, standing guard around the perimeter, equipped with powerful magical equipment.

To the side, Zuranon was busy retrieving a mix of strange and exotic items from out of thin air and laying them in a large ornate chest.

Vladimir's eyes sparkled as he looked on amazed at the variety and quality of the items that the old magus summoned into being.

Withdrawing a staff from out of nowhere, Zuranon looked at it for a moment in distaste, then threw it over to Vladimir.

"Here, you can have this. I'd forgotten how much stuff I had in my inventory. Its truly a bother to empty it." Zuranon was emptying his inventory as a precaution. He didn't know if this ritual would prevent him from accessing it again in the future.

"Thank you master! I will treasure this staff for the rest of my life."

"Alright. All done."

Zuranon locked the chest with a key that he hung around his neck before walked to the center of the circle to begin the ritual.

"Ok Vladimir. Remember, the first step of the ritual is to create the undead body. For this first step I'll need to die. Once I die, my soul will automatically be captured by this crystal. I need you to then cast the spell I taught you and to place the crystal inside of me. This step requires you to act quickly. If you don't do it promptly my body will be occupied by the spirits in this area. Don't even think of betraying me, Vladimir. You'll never escape alive if you do." Zuranon warned looking stern.

"Oh, I'm fully aware I would die if I betrayed you Master, never fear."

"Good. Then let's begin."

Vladimir watched as Zuranon removed his robe and drank the flask of dark liquid. He then laid down in the center of the large magical formation.

Zuranon's eyes bulged and he drew in a haggard breath. His face turned ghostly pale and his skin shrunk rapidly, tightening over his bones. A glowing violet light arose from the lines of the magical formation as it begun to pulse slowly.

The violet light started to infuse Zuranon's body and a drastic change occurred over it. His flesh evaporated and his white bones became larger and magically reinforced. His frame extended as he transformed into a powerful undead creature. At the same time a softly glowing apparition seemed to fly into the crystal lying above Zuranon's head.

All of a sudden Vladimir laughed. After all this time he would be able to get his revenge and all he had to do was die. It was almost too easy. Vladimir spat at the corpse of his Master and bent down to pick up the crystal that contained his soul.

"You never did realise that my mother and sister were victims of your insidious experiments, did you?"

Vladimir smiled and looked to the dozens of guards standing around the large perimeter.

"I had devoted my life to get close to you, all in order to obtain vengeance. To think that you, who desired immortality, would not consider that I would be willing to die in order kill you. Laughable!"

Zuranon's corpse started to stir and Vladimir's smile vanished.

"It seems like I don't have much time left either."

Placing the crystal on a rock Vladimir smashed it with the staff Zuranon had given him before. By destroying the crystal he destroyed Zuranon's very soul.

Stroking the staff that had destroyed Zuranon's soul, Vladimir smiled,admiring its beauty.

"This staff is actually pretty amazing. Don't worry master, I'll continue to treasure this staff until I die, just like I promised."

Putting some distance between him and the awakening corpse, Vladimir walked to the edge of the perimeter. He dropped to his knees a few yards before the first skeleton and put the staff down beside him. He then withdrew a pendant from around his neck and opened it, revealing a porcelain portrait of two woman.

"I have finally avenged you. Mother, sister, I will see you soon."

A mindless growl sounded from behind him as Zuranon's corpse stood up.

Vladimir started to quietly weep as he felt an intense aura of dread emanate from the monster.

Without Zuranon's soul the undead corpse would be completely mindless, driven only by its desire to kill the living.

"And so my sorry saga ends here." Vladimir whispered to himself as he heard footsteps approaching him from behind.

Shortly after, Vladimir began to scream as he felt a cold bony hand grab the top of his skull and squeeze.

* * *

 **A/N: Hoped you liked the intermission! Remember to review if you can. Also if you have been enjoying this story so far, favorites and follows are appreciated.**

 **And now for some bonus material...**

 **Character Classes and Backgrounds:**

 **Kalelor Sterlingworth:**

The son of a wealthy merchant who studied both business and magic from a young age. Kalelor was a talented student who later became a scholar of the Magician's Guild. While he was still a young man, Kalelor's father was killed when a rival merchant leaked his trading route to local bandits. Unwilling to see his father's business die with him, Kalelor took over and managed to thrive, driving the merchant responsible for his father's death into bankruptcy. The prime of Kalelor's life was spent in wanton pursuits of woman and money and his magical studies were left to the wayside. Growing in confidence with his mercantile brilliance, Kalelor took out a huge loan from Eight Fingers in order to fund a lucrative trading expedition that would have set him up for life. Unfortunately for Kalelor, the merchant who had sabotaged his father and been driven bankrupt caught wind of this and manged to convince one of his old friends to lend him some funds. The merchant then employed a group of workers to ambush Kalelor's caravan. The workers ruthlessly killed all of the Kalelor's hirelings and stole his merchandise. While the bankrupt merchant used the stolen goods to raise his fortunes, Kalelor's fortune plummeted. Pursued by Eight Fingers over his debt, Kalelor eventually turned to adventuring as his only means of climbing his way up to a better life.

Job Classes:

Magician lvl 10

Battle Mage lvl ?

High Wizard lvl ?

Warrior lvl 1

Merchant lvl ?

others..

* * *

 **Alfred Nozzletoff:**

The son of a master armourer, Alfred grew up as his father's apprentice. Unfortunately, Alfred didn't have any talent for forming plate, which caused a rift to form between him and his father. Alfred much preferred dressing up and playing in the armour when his father wasn't around than making it. When Alfred was still a young boy, his father took him with him to the Capital of Re-Estize in order to deliver a commissioned plate armour set to a noble there. While Alfred was there he became enthralled with the mighty armour-wearing paladins that patrolled around the cathedral. Shortly after, Alfred ran away from his father and managed to join a paladin order. Learning much wisdom and strength as he grew and trained with the paladins, Alfred specialized in armoured defence, learning only a small range of combat spells and martial arts.

After spending twenty years with the paladin order, gaining many merits and much strength, Alfred became disenchanted. The paladin order became too mundane for him, with a battle only likely to occur on rare peace keeping missions. The truth was, the temple liked to keep it's strength in reserve and would mostly just use adventurers to deal with threats to it's parish.

Seeing this and feeling an unhealthy desire for battle, Alfred decided to become an adventurer himself.

Job Classes:

Warrior lvl 4

Paladin lvl 10

Templar lvl ?

Crusader lvl ?

others...

* * *

 **A/N: I'm only posting the following for reference and for those who might find it interesting. These are my own best estimates and I don't want anyone to get too triggered over it. I definitely don't want to argue about it or let it distract from the story. Enjoy =)**

 **Gold in the New World**

After deciding to specify how much gold coins things cost, I found it useful to create this chart based upon my own best guess of what certain people would earn in a year.

 **Type |Pay grade | Yearly Salary | Types of trades who fall into this category**

Average person | 1 | 26.4 Gold | Average trades, copper and iron ranked adventurers

Highly paid person | 2 | 52.8 Gold | Master Tradespeople/ silver and gold ranked adventurers

Very highly paid person | 3 | 79.2 Gold | Merchants / Platinum adventurers

Very highly paid person | 5 | 132 Gold | Mythril adventurer/ Wealthy merchant 1

Very highly paid person | 7 | 184.8 Gold | Orichalcum adventurer/ Wealthy merchant 2

CEO type person | 20 | 528 Gold | Adamantite adventurer/ Nobles

* * *

 **New World Power Levels**

Finally, I also found it useful to have some sort of scale for power levels in the New World.

 **Rank | Level Range | Magic tiers | Notes**

Copper | 7 - 9 |Tier-1 magic is possible (7 levels in magic job classes) |

Iron | 10 - 12 | |

Silver | 13 - 15 |Tier-2 magic is possible (14 levels in magic job classes) |

Gold | 16 - 18 | | Limit of hard training and no talent

Platinum | 19 - 21 |Tier-3 magic is possible (21 levels in magic job classes) |

Mythril | 22 - 24 | |

Orichalcum | 25 - 27 | |

Adamantite | 28 - 30 |Tier-4 magic is possible (28 levels in magic job classes) | Limit of hard training and talent

Hero | 31 - 50 | |

Demi-God | 51 - 70 | |


	9. Chapter 9: Aftermath

**Part 2, Chapter 9: Aftermath**

It had been two months since the demon invasion had threatened Re-Estize's Royal capital. The repairs of the warehouse district were still ongoing and the King's knights had finally left the area. The mood in the capital was still grim and a gloomy atmosphere permeated many of the drinking establishments that Jake liked to frequent.

"This place has gone to shit." he mouthed over a cup of weak cider, sitting outside in Blue Doors' practice yard.

"It can't be helped" replied Alfred between swings of his mace. "That day, nearly everyone lost somebody that they cared about."

Alfred was equipped in weighted practice gear and was practicing his abilities and movements against a thick wooden post. After failing one particularly complicated maneuver, where he tried dodging back before jumping forward in a full 360-degree spin attack, he stopped and panting made his way over to Jake.

"Plus, many of the people lost that day went missing. Being kidnapped by demons is a fate surely worse than death."

Jake sighed, "I know this. I'm just saying we should consider leaving for a bit. Maybe go to another city or take on a long quest. I'm sick of this perpetual gloom."

"Maybe, but we'll struggle to find a quest like that now."

After the losses from the warehouse district many merchants and nobles went bankrupt and would take years to recover. Prices for basic commodities went through the roof which drove up the price of everything. The usual quest givers, rich merchants and nobles, hadn't been posting new quests. In fact the only new quests that had appeared in the last week were for low-rank adventurers to replace some of the monster patrols that the King's knights used to do.

Jake took a long drink from his cup and stood up.

"I just wish we were doing something rather than just sitting around. All Kalelor seems to be interested in lately is reading that damn book of his. Barker seems to disappear for days at a time and when he is here, it's not exactly fun teaching him the longsword. At least you've made time to train with me between your temple duties."

"Speaking of training, how is yours progressing?"

"Yeah pretty good, I've been doing 100 push-ups, 100 sit-ups, 100 squats and a 10Km run every single day since the invasion."

"Err.. That doesn't sound like much!" Alfred wiped the sweat off his head with his hand as he looked at Jake disapprovingly.

Jake laughed, "That's just my warm up! I could never hope to match Momon with just that. I also spend half of every day in weighted training gear practicing my sword techniques and combat movements. I've gotten a lot stronger but it has it's drawbacks.. I've been too sore and tired for women lately.. But then I think of Nabe from Darkness, and I just can't help but feel motivated to continue!"

"So that's why… You do remember what happened last time with Nabe, right? You still think you have a chance? Still.. It's good that you have finally started to train seriously."

"I like to think of myself as a pragmatic optimist. Hey, I've been sorely lacking a good training partner lately. Do you want to have a round?"

"Huh, sure. Let's see what you can do."

"Alright!" Jake said getting excited. "No magic though! That isn't fair."

"Jake.." Alfred drawled, a wide smile revealing teeth beneath his black beard. "If you're going up against me, you're going up against magic. Just because I can use magic and you can't, doesn't make it unfair. Consider it training to increase your magical defense."

"Ara, I'll allow it then." Jake made a show of being magnanimous while he picked up his training sword and followed Alfred out into the center of the yard.

"You'll allow it? Don't make me laugh." scoffed Alfred.

"Pfft, let's just do this."

Jake squared up against Alfred with a couple of meters separating them. His practice longsword held in two hands was pointed towards the ground. He crouched assuming a wide stance, his left leg in front as he put his bodyweight on his right.

Alfred raised his shield in front of him and held his mace out to the side, ready.

"Ready?" smiled Jake.

"Come at m.. Wait!" Alfred had just seen the adventurer Katrina from Snake Suits enter the yard. "Sorry Jake, looks like something has come up. Maybe some other time."

Alfred dropped his ready stance and started to walk over to meet with them.

"The fuck?!" swore Jake, exasperated, half tempted to attack Alfred regardless.

Alfred turned back around as Jake swore and approached him. Leaning over him and staring fiercely into his eyes, he whispered, "Now Jake, you know I like her, so back off! And I warn you, don't try to stop me again!"

Jake gulped and backed away, suddenly terrified. He had forgotten how scary Alfred could be.

 _Some holier than thou paladin my arse!_

Jake thought to himself as he watched Alfred walk up to Katrina with a friendly smile and give her a hug. Finding himself suddenly in a sour mood, Jake went over to the training post and began to vent.

...

* * *

...

"Black Dust?! Are you sure?"

Alfred was sitting at a private booth inside Blue Doors talking to Katrina.

The events of the demon invasion along with the loss of half of her adventurer team, had greatly shaken Katrina's foundation. She had retreated into her work at the healing temples, working long hours to avoid confronting her emotional instability. As a priestess of the Four Great Gods she had fully devoted her time to healing the sick and leading rites of worship.

To maintain the benefits of being a sanctioned paladin, Alfred was required to work a minimum of six weeks a year in service to the temples and to respond to any call to arms. In return, the temples gave him paladin training, lodgings and modest remuneration for the time served.

As such, over the last few weeks, Alfred had not only been fulfilling his duties to the temples, but had also spent a lot of time with Katrina. While it seemed to Katrina to be merely a happy coincidence that their duties often intersected, Alfred had secretly been maneuvering behind the scenes in order to get close to her.

Their relationship had blossomed into one of trust and friendship as a result. Katrina came to rely on Alfred for emotional support and over the last week had increasingly come to him with problems or small worries. Alfred had successfully become her rock, her new foundation in this world.

As a result, Alfred was Katrina's first and only point of contact when she discovered a problem with her last remaining adventurer teammate, Tomas.

"Yes! He first started with alcohol, trying to drown out the loss of our leader and Markus most likely. I could tell he wasn't handling their deaths very well, but I was too focused on myself and my work to consider reaching out to him. I guess I just assumed he would dig himself out of this rut eventually. He has always been a positive, capable and driven man."

"Don't blame yourself Katrina. It's not your fault. Whatever happens, we'll work through it. Tell me what happened next." consoled Alfred, reaching out and holding her hand.

Katrina took a deep breath to calm herself and gave a gentle squeeze to Alfred's hand and a quick smile of appreciation.

"Right. I guess the alcohol wasn't enough or maybe he just wanted to feel good again, but somewhere along the line he started taking Black Dust with his drinks. He came to see me a week ago and he appeared to be better. He was relaxed and content and even sounded somewhat positive. I brushed him aside and told him to come back later. I didn't recognise the warning signs then, perhaps, it was because I still had my own problems to deal with. This morning.."

Katrina suddenly burst into tears, overcome with emotion.

Alfred stood up and went to her, giving her a big hug. He soothed in her ear,

"It's okay, just tell me. We'll work through it."

Katrina nodded and wiped the tears from her face with the back of her wrists.

"I went to see him this morning," Katrina continued, "He wasn't at the inn where he'd been staying. I asked around and was told he had been going to a Black Dust den down in the lower city. Of course I became concerned and went down to see him immediately. I found him in an alley, half-naked, slouched against a wall and passed out in a puddle of piss. It was horrible Alfred! I tried to wake him and help him to leave but he shoved me away. He was distant, his eyes were unfocused and he appeared dazed. I tried healing him and it appeared to work, however, when he regained his senses instead of thanking me he yelled at me and cursed me. He drove me away Alfred.. and I watched from across the street as he went straight back into that drug den. I don't know what to do! Please help me."

"So that's how it is. Don't worry I'll definitely help you. Tomas is pretty strong though, I think it's best if we get the full help of my team to deal with this. How about you meet us back here tonight when everyone returns?"

"I will. Thank you Alfred! You're a good friend."

"What!?" replied Alfred abruptly.

Katrina looked confused.

"I said, you're a good _friend_."

Alfred's thoughts were in turmoil as he thought back to his interactions with Katrina over the couple of months and just now. Objectively looking at all these interactions he came to a conclusion.

 _Goddammit!_

...

* * *

...

"Are you almost done reading that thing? How about you come back to bed? I think I need that demon of lust slain again, oh Kalelor the demon-slayer."

Sara lay naked on her side with an arm outstretched, beckoning Kalelor over.

Kalelor looked up from his tome and smiled at her. He was sitting at the small desk in her room while she lay on the bed.

"You know I want to study this tome. You can't keep dragging me away from it forever."

"I can try." Sara flicked her hair back and flipped onto her back, arching it upwards.

"You do realise that you also benefit greatly from me learning more about magic and how to control it?"

"Oh..? Pray tell, demon-slayer, how do I benefit from it?"

"Like this.. [Remote Vibration]!"

"Aieee! Fuahh.. haaa... What are you doing? Stop.. Fuahh.. haaa... Keep going.. Don't Stop! Arhh.."

Sara started to moan and pant heavily and Kalelor smiled making precise movements with his fingers and hands.

[Remote Vibration] was a tier-1 spell that Kalelor had developed when a moment of inspiration had struck him while he was reading _Advanced Magical Theory - Tier-3_. By developing a more fundamental understanding of the components that made up spells, Kalelor, with not too much difficulty, was able to slightly tweak the existing spells [Telekinesis - Push] and [Telekinesis - Pull] into a new spell that alternated between the two at a high frequency. He had miscalculated the effect of the spell creation, however, and the spell had been pitifully weak. He had originally discarded it as a failed experiment and only now thought to use it here.

"Fuahh.. haaaaaaa... Ok.. You can stop now. Stop! Aieee!"

Kalelor chuckled and ended the spell. Sara was on the bed breathing raggedly with her legs crossed tightly.

"See what I mean? You benefit too."

"That.. Amazing! I didn't know such a spell even existed! What tier was it?"

"Just a tier-1 spell I developed by accident."

"Tier-1? That spell is worth learning magic for! Seriously. If you sold that spell.. Well, let's just say that I can imagine a lot of female magic casters wanting it."

Kalelor laughed, pleased with Sara's response. He stood up and walked over to kiss her on the forehead.

"I should be going. I've still got some errands to run before the day ends."

Sara watched as Kalelor walked around the room picking up his scattered garments before returning to the desk to get dressed. He stowed his tome away in his bag and headed for the door.

"Aren't you forgetting this?" Sara called out to him.

Kalelor turned around curious to see what he had forgotten and was surprised to see a platinum adventurer's plate between Sara's breasts.

"How.. " Kalelor patted his chest and discovered his plate missing. "Tsk.. Sara hand it over."

Sara shook her head playfully, with smile as she beckoned him over with one finger.

Kalelor sighed and rolled his eyes, "Damn nympho."

With a look of resignation he dropped his bag and walked towards the bed.

...

* * *

...

Barker crept up the stairs activating his shadow pendant as he did. He dashed past the banister and to the far wall of the large room that took up the entire top floor of the building. This time, he had left his cape back at his room.

Towards the back of the room facing the stairs, Kalign sat at his desk. He was supporting his forehead with his elbow against the tabletop. Barker smiled at his target's unwary state.

Barker quickly made his way to the back wall. Holding his breath he approached the man's side, expecting to be discovered at any moment. He had been even more stealthy this time, however, he knew that the man before him was a master and had mostly likely already discovered him. Still, this was a game that had continued on ever since Kalign had trained him in stealth. Kalign had said it was designed to keep himself sharp and for Barker to have a goal to work towards.

Barker came right up to Kalign's shoulder and was confused as to why Kalign had not said anything yet. Frowning, Barker stood up straight and cleared his throat.

"Mmgrrrhhh."

"Oh Gods! No please! I've done everything you've asked!"

"Err?"

Kalign's reaction greatly shocked Barker. When he had made himself known, Kalign had startled, half jumping out of his seat before bowing his head to the desk in supplication.

"Master Kalign?"

"Barker? Barker! How dare you sneak up to me!"

Kalign suddenly got angry and shouted at Barker. His fury died quickly though and he pointed to a chair in front of his desk.

"Just take a seat. I strongly suggest you forget everything you just heard or saw."

Barker looked curiously at Kalign's pale face and his dark sunken eyes as he made his way to the seat. Kalign seemed edgy as if he was afraid of his own shadow. In fact, Kalign seemed to be looking at the shadows around the room right now, even, oddly enough, looking up at the ceiling for a couple of seconds.

"What's wrong master?" Barker asked as he took a seat.

"Hmm? Nothing. Don't ask again."

Barker's question caused Kalign to refocus on him and he glared before adding.

"From now on I forbid you to sneak in here. If you need to see me use the front door and make yourself known."

"I understand master, I apologise for sneaking in just now." Barker bowed his head in respect, his eyes narrowed in suspicion. "I came as soon as I heard you were back in town. Did you have a good trip?"

Kalign seemed to shudder at that question and turned slightly green.

"Don't!" Taking a deep breath, Kalign continued, "I don't want to talk about that. How did you know I went on a trip?"

"Well, you just disappeared suddenly and no one knew where you were. I just assumed that you had some urgent business elsewhere."

Kalign waved his hand, dismissing the topic.

"Enough about that. Don't bring it up again. Why are you here? I didn't summon you."

"Yes, before you left, you gave me some contracts to complete. I have come to let you know that the targets have been eliminated."

"I see.. Well done. Is that all?"

"Well.. yes, that's all."

"Well then, you're dismissed." Kalign waved his hand to shoo Barker away.

Barker looked confused. This meeting had not gone at all how he had expected it to.

"Yes master."

Barker stood up and bowed to Kalign before turning to leave.

...

* * *

...

It was already dark by the time Kalelor got back to Blue Doors and he was looking forward to a quiet night studying his tome. He was thus surprised to see Alfred waiting for him by the entrance.

"Where have you been? I've been waiting for you." Alfred looked upset.

"Arrh.. You know.. I've been studying my magic tome at the Magician's Guild. What's up with you?"

"Something terrible has happened." Alfred said seriously and leaned in close to Kalelor.

Noticing Alfred's solemn tone, Kalelor also turned serious and leaned closer.

"I've been friend-zoned by Katrina!" Alfred whispered desperately.

"Hmm.. So that's it.. Bahwahaha"

Kalelor couldn't help but laugh at Alfred's misfortune even though he knew that it was a serious matter. Alfred frowned as he watched Kalelor laugh but didn't say anything.

"Ok.. Tell me everything. I might be able to help you."

...

* * *

...

*Tap Tap Tap Tap Tap!**Tap Tap Tap Tap Tap!*

Jake had one hand spread outwards on the table and was currently using a knife to quickly stab the gaps in between his fingers. As he did so he started to sing quietly to himself.

"Oh.. I have all my fingers, the knife goes chop chop chop. If I miss the spaces, my fingers will come off!"

Barker looked on, secretly hoping Jake would stab himself.

"Aren't you afraid you'll hurt yourself?" Katrina asked, curious.

"Arr.. even if I did, well you could just heal me up straight away, so there is nothing to fear." Jake flashed Katrina a smile and a wink.

Katrina opened her mouth slightly in surprise before smiling back.

They were sitting in Blue Door's dining area at a private booth waiting for Kalelor and Alfred to return.

"I'm going to bed in 5 minutes if they still haven't returned by then." grumbled Barker.

"Please wait, Mr Barker! I'm sure it won't be too much longer. I would really appreciate your help in this matter." Katrina pleaded.

Barker scoffed and crossed his arms but remained silent.

A short while later they looked up as Alfred and Kalelor entered and walked over to join them at the booth.

"You kept us waiting long enough! So what's this about?" complained Barker.

"Sorry to keep you all, I didn't know about this. I was busy at the.. Magician's Guild." Kalelor tried to explain.

"Don't worry about it. We're all here now and there is something I want to ask you all." Alfred said as he sat next to Katrina and casually put his arm around her.

Katrina's eyes widened slightly in surprise and she shifted her shoulders uncomfortably but remained silent. Alfred gave an imperceptible nod to Kalelor and Kalelor gave a small smile back.

"Tomas has gone and got himself addicted to Black Dust, and Katrina here, has asked for our help in an intervention. I've already said I'll help, but, I'll need all of you to help as well."

Barker scoffed and rolled his eyes. Jake looked shocked and nodded his head. Kalelor stroked the evening stubble on his chin in thought.

Katrina slammed her forehead on the table and pleaded desperately, "Please help us! I promise we'll find a way to repay you if you do!"

"No need to beg Katrina. Of course we'll help you." Kalelor replied with a wide, suspicious smile. "As for a way to repay us, I have the perfect idea.. How about you and Tomas join Morning Star!"

...

* * *

...

Barker put on his mask and looked to the other masked men standing around him. The members of Morning Star were all gathered together in a small building that they had rented out in the lower city. Not far away was the Black Dust den that Tomas was wasting away in.

"So, you're certain that you have gotten the dose right? I don't want to kill him." Kalelor stated.

"I'm confident with my skills in this area. I've even allowed for his increased vitality." reassured Barker.

"Is this really the best plan we could come up with?" Jake said, making one last appeal against Barker's plan.

"Yes, I agree with Jake on this one. I don't like this. It feels wrong and I hate that I have to keep this a secret from Katrina." Alfred added.

"Listen.. I don't like this either, however, it's the best plan we have. As Barker said, Tomas is addicted to Black Dust now. He won't thank any of us for intervening if we try to help him. He may even attack us. This is the only way and Katrina doesn't have the constitution to see it through. Stick with the plan and everything will work out. Don't worry. Alright then, [Dark Vision]."

Kalelor cast the spell on Barker.

"Right, then I'll go first."

Barker stealthily exited the building and made his way down the darkened street. Lantern oil had become a scarce commodity and was expensive even before the demon invasion. As such, the streets in the lower city were pitch black on the moonless night.

Creeping along the edges of the street, Barker could see the buildings and details around him as if it was midday. Relying on the darkness and his dark clothing, he made his way quickly to the alley where Katrina had first found Tomas.

Searching, Barker found Tomas lying against the alley wall in a stupor with a metal flask clutched tightly to his chest. Approaching him steadily, Barker withdrew a thin poisoner's knife coated with a thick, transparent substance. Barker casually slashed the knife across one of Tomas' outstretched legs before sprinting away down the alley and out of sight. He heard a low grunt and a mumbled curse from Tomas, but no more.

After waiting a short while for the tranquilizing agent to take affect, Barker re-entered the alley and checked on Tomas. He had fallen over onto his side and was completely knocked out. Barker smiled as he bent to pick up the metal flask that Tomas had been guarding so close to his chest. He sniffed it and grimaced, it was definitely a potent concoction of alcoholic spirits and Black Dust.

Pouring the contents of the flask out as he walked to the entrance of the alley, Barker waved the others over.


	10. Chapter 10: Captivity

**Part 2, Chapter 10: Captivity**

"Arrr.."

*Cough!* *Cough!*

Tomas awoke with a piercing headache and coughed to clear the bile in his throat. He felt stiff and sore all over and was immediately confused as to where he was. Blinking his eyes he tried to take a sip from his flask.

 _What the?_

Shocked, Tomas discovered that he couldn't move his arms. He groaned softly, this development had caused a spike of agony in his head. The anxious need to take a sip from his flask grew within him.

Tomas licked his lips as he looked around, trying to get his bearings. He was sitting upright in a cold, hard, high backed chair. He couldn't move his arms or legs. The room he was in was dark and he could smell a damp musty odour. Suddenly, he became aware that he was naked and his flask was gone.

"Fucking thieves! My flask! Give it back! Give it back!"

*Cough!* *Cough!* *Arrc..pootch!*

Tomas screamed before choking on some bile and spitting to the side. He was dreadfully thirsty and his headache was getting worse. Tomas moaned pitifully and drooped his head until his chin rested on his chest.

"Give me back my flask." Tomas whispered.

A moment later, sounds of quiet weeping could be heard.

...

* * *

...

Tomas was startled awake when a bucket of water splashed over his head. He sputtered, choking, trying to breathe. When he recovered, he squinted at the light of the candle beside the door to the room. A black silhouette of a man stood before him. His identity masked by shadows, dark clothes and a mask.

"So dog, did you enjoy your wake up call?" The man asked.

"Who? Where is my flask?" Tomas asked desperately, straining at his bonds.

*Thunk!*

"Gahh..!"

"Oww.. You've got a hard face!" The masked man said as he rubbed his knuckles.

Tomas eyes glinted in anger, the man in front of him had just punched him in the face! It hadn't hurt much though, the man was clearly weak.

"I see.. I'll have to use these then." The masked man said as he withdrew a metallic object from his pocket.

Tomas squinted at them and as the masked man fitted them onto his hand he recognised them as brass knuckles.

"You fucking coward!" Tomas spat and glared defiantly at the masked man.

"Oh yeah? I'll tell you what then, dog.. I'll give you a sip of your flask if you beg me for it."

Tomas' face changed instantly and a look of hope spread across it.

"I beg you! Please, my flask, please! I beg you! A sip of my flask!"

"Good doggie. As promised here is your flask."

The masked man produced a metal flask and Tomas' eyes lit up with rapturous desire as he recognised it. The masked man opened the lid and offered it to Tomas' mouth. Tomas quickly opened his mouth and accepted the contents of the flask greedily.

"Pahh! Bastard!" *Cough!*

Suddenly, Tomas started choking and spitting, trying to vomit. The masked man burst into laughter.

"You like that dog? You like drinking my piss? You're the fucking coward. Don't you forget it."

*Thunk!* *Clang!*

*Thunk! Thunk! Thunk!*

*Thunk! Thunk! Thunk!* *Thunk!*

The masked man started to pant after unleashing a series of vicious blows to Tomas' face and body.

"You're a fucking tough bastard though." The masked man said, impressed that his efforts had only resulted in minor damage to Tomas. Normally he would be able to easily draw blood and break bones with his brass knuckles. Tomas, however, only had some light bruising on his face and ribs.

Tomas looked up and spat a glob bloody spit at the man.

"You're a dead man when I get out of here." Tomas promised.

"Pfft.. What can a coward of a dog like you do to me?" taunted the masked man, before spitting in Tomas' face.

The masked man took off his brass knuckles and put them back into his pocket. He took out a small satchel and showed its contents to Tomas.

"Do you know what this is?" asked the man.

Tomas recognised the contents and licked his lips, nodding.

"It's Black Dust!"

"Do you want some?" asked the masked man.

Tomas nodded eagerly, a desperate gleam in his eyes and a sheen of cold sweat on his forehead.

"Ok then.. I'll give you some."

The masked man put a pinch of the Black Dust in Tomas' flask and swirled it around a bit.

"You don't mind having it with my piss right?"

"Fuck you! You fucking bastard!" Tomas snarled between clenched teeth.

"Oh? You don't want it then? That's too bad." the masked man closed the flask's lid and went to put it away.

"Wait! I.. Give it to me! Please!" Tomas pleaded with a pitiful look.

"No.. I don't think I will now. I don't like cowardly dogs like you after all." The masked man started to pour the contents of the flask out over the floor.

Tomas watched on aghast and continued to stare at the puddle on the ground long after the masked man had blown out the candle and left.

Eventually sounds of quiet weeping could be heard.

...

* * *

...

Tomas nodded awake as he heard approaching footsteps. He groaned and shifted his aching body as much as his constraints would allow. He had been confined to the same chair and position the entire time. He had lost count of how many times the masked man had come to him and had no idea how long he had been trapped here.

Sometimes the masked man would beat him. Sometimes he would just torment and ridicule him. Other times he would bring food and water and feed him. Sometimes he would do all three.

Tomas had learnt that the masked man would only treat him like a human and feed him if he didn't beg for the Black Dust. If Tomas had so much as looked with desire at the Black Dust, the masked man would refuse to feed him and give him a vicious beating followed by ridicule. It had caused Tomas to weep in shame and self-pity. He had learnt during this time that the withdrawal symptoms of food and water were much more painful than the withdrawal symptoms of Black Dust.

Tomas licked his dry cracked lips and waited for the masked man to appear.

 _This time I will definitely not give in to temptation!_

The masked man opened the door to the cellar and lit the candle by the door. Turning around he approached Tomas with a tray.

"Well hello again little doggie. How are you feeling today?"

"Water.. Please." Tomas begged through cracked lips.

The masked man placed the tray on the floor. On the tray was a cup, a pitcher of water and a hunk of bread.

'Now, now, little doggie are you sure? I could give you some water or food.. Or I could give you some of this instead." The masked man withdrew a satchel from his pocket and showed the contents to Tomas.

Tomas steeled himself and looked upon the satchel with disgust. It reminded him of his suffering and of his shameful state that had got him here in the first place.

"Hmm? What do you say?" The masked man waved the satchel under Tomas' eyes, near his mouth and nose.

Tomas closed his mouth tightly and turned his head to the side.

"Water.. Please." Tomas repeated.

"Well, well. I do believe we have finally made progress. OK then.. I'll give you some water."

The masked man held the cup up in front of Tomas and poured water from the pitcher into it. Tomas stared desperately at the water as it flowed into the cup, imagining its sweat coolness. He tried to swallow but couldn't.

"Here you are then."

The masked man lifted the cup up to Tomas' lips and slowly poured the water into Tomas' desperate mouth. After draining the whole cup, Tomas licked his lips and watched as the man poured him another cup. After draining that one as well the masked man fed him some bread.

Once he was finished the masked man stood up.

"Now what do you say?"

"Thank you.." Tomas stammered and started to weep.

"Good. I like my dogs obedient. I think you're ready to leave now." the masked man said happily, which surprised Tomas.

The masked man produced a key from within his clothes and went around the back of Tomas' chair. Tomas felt the man unlock the iron manacles fastening his legs first.

"Now, when you're free just follow me and I'll take you to a bath and give you some fresh clothes." the masked man said as he unlocked Tomas' hands.

Once free, Tomas stretched his legs and massaged his wrists. The masked man came to the front and beckoned him to follow as he picked up the tray.

Suddenly, Tomas snarled and jumping up grabbed the masked man by the throat and hauled him through the air to the far wall. Pinning him against the wall by his throat, Tomas glared into his terrified eyes through the mask.

"You think I would let you live after what you did to me?" spat Tomas with an intense rage etched upon his features.

Tomas was a platinum-ranked adventurer and had amazing vitality and strength. He could easily pin the masked man against the wall with his toes dangling in the air, despite his debilitated state. A feral gleam ran through Tomas' eyes and he started to punch the man in the gut repeatedly. Each punch had enough force to make the masked man's eyes pop. He turned purple and blood started to dribble out from beneath his mask.

With the masked man's internal organs likely ruptured, Tomas stopped and let him down. The man looked at him accusingly as he chocked on the blood bubbling up from his mouth. Tomas frowned down at the dying man.

"Did you honestly expect any other outcome? I told you I would kill you when I got out of here."


	11. Chapter 11:Escape

**Part 2, Chapter 11: Escape**

Tomas ripped the man's mask off, revealing his face. He was disappointed to discover that he didn't recognise him. Searching the man's body he found a couple of keys, a dagger, the bronze knuckles, the Black Dust satchel and a coin pouch with three gold coins in it.

Tomas looked at the Black Dust Satchel and threw it away in disgust. It still brought a lingering desire and an intense wave of shame. As Tomas watched the satchel fly to the corner of the room he swore to himself that he would never become so weak again. He would need to be strong and have a clear head in order to get vengeance for whoever was responsible for his imprisonment.

Taking the man's pants and shoes Tomas opened the door to the room that had been his prison. Tomas quickly ran upstairs holding the dagger ready. At the top he came to a small empty room. Listening carefully he could make out voices in the next room. Gripping the dagger tightly, Tomas stood poised to rush through the door.

"..he didn't even thank me when I decided not to trash his shop after he failed to make the full payment."

Tomas burst into the room and counted three men gathered around a table playing cards and chatting. They looked up surprised by his sudden entrance before realization quickly dawned and they reached for their weapons.

Tomas let out a low growl and charged at the nearest of them. Like a flash of lightning Tomas' dagger stabbed through the man's neck before he could react. Seeing their companion's death, a desperate fear glinted across the eyes of the remaining two. They swiped at Tomas with their daggers.

Deftly parrying one dagger aside and dodging the other, Tomas' dagger flashed out twice more. Just like that the three men in the room fell to the ground dead in quick succession.

Tomas searched their bodies but found little of interest apart from Eight Fingers gang tattoos on the men's arms.

 _Was I kidnapped by Eight Fingers? For what reason? This doesn't make sense._

After searching the rest of the building and discovering nothing of further use apart from a shirt, Tomas walked out onto the street and quickly disappeared into the mid-morning crowds of the lower city.

...

* * *

...

"Slant it upwards a bit more. Ok, now when I attack you with a slash from the left, parry it away like this. Ready?"

Jake slashed from the left with a practice sword as he taught Barker the longsword.

After several more minutes of this they stopped for a rest. Jake poured himself and Barker a cup of water and began to sip it.

"You know, I still don't like the situation with Tomas." Jake threw out.

"You never did like to get your hands dirty though, did you? This is the fastest way to get Tomas over his addiction. Plus if everything goes to plan he'll be indebted to us for saving him when we bust in there and kill the goons I hired. Don't bring it up anymore. Remember, the end justifies the means."

"I was just saying.. Alright your defense needs more work. We'll practice that for another half hour and then we'll spar for a bit. Also, I've recently discovered that drawing a longsword from the back is physically impossible, so from now on we'll be wearing them on our sides."

...

* * *

...

Alfred stood guard by the door. Inside Katrina was tending to the injured noble's child. Alfred watched as she finished and approached him.

"I've finished here. The child just had a broken arm. Let's head back."

Katrina spoke curtly to Alfred without looking at him and marched out. Alfred sighed and followed her sullenly.

They left the noble's house and were walking back to the healing temple when Katrina suddenly turned around and confronted Alfred.

"I know you've been keeping something from me! About Tomas. If you value our friendship at all you'll tell me what happened that night."

"Look Katrina.. I've been telling you the truth." Alfred insisted. "That night we went to help Tomas, we went to that alley that you mentioned. But Tomas was nowhere to be seen. We searched for hours for him to no avail. Haven't we also gone out to look for him everyday and put up posters with you since he's been missing? Maybe he just left?"

"Tomas wouldn't have just left like that. I know he's still in trouble." Katrina said firmly. Her eyes started to redden and she quickly turned back around and kept walking down the street. Alfred hurried after her.

Things had not been well between them since the night she had come to ask for Morning Star's help with Tomas. Alfred frowned as he thought on just how well Kalelor's advice had gone down in practice. It had been tantamount to sabotage. It also didn't help that after discovering that Tomas was missing, Katrina had grown more distant.

"Have you at least given any more thought to joining Morning Star? You can't keep going like this forever and Snake Suits has disbanded in all but name." Alfred asked her from behind when he had caught up.

"I won't consider it until after the matter with Tomas has been resolved." Katrina replied shortly, clearly in no mood to talk. "The deal was that Morning Star would help me with Tomas and then we'll join your team. So far you've been absolutely no help whatsoever."

Alfred wasn't very experienced with women, however, even he could sense that Katrina was not in an agreeable mood. Now was not the time to be driving home his agenda.

"This matter with Tomas.. I'll be going out again tonight to look for him. Kalelor and the others are also asking around for him. Please trust us Katrina. We'll find him."

Alfred watched Katrina give the smallest of nods in concession to his efforts to placate her.

"Lets just head back to the temple. I know you and the others are trying. I just can't rest until I know for certain what happened to Tomas."

Katrina ended the conversation and the two of them walked in silence through the streets for a time. After passing through the noble district of the capital they entered the market district. Alfred heard a crash down one street on his right. Turning to look in that direction out of curiosity he saw that a small cart had fallen over and people were pointing to a man with hollow cheeks, a ragged blonde beard and ill-fitting clothing that looked to be escaping down an alley. _A thief?_ Thought Alfred.

"Err..?"

Alfred turned to look back at Katrina who had made a noise. Her eyes were wide as she looked in the direction of the disturbance and she appeared shocked.

"What's wrong?" asked Alfred worried.

Suddenly, Katrina started to run towards the alley that the blond bearded man had run down.

"I think that was Tomas! It looks like he's in trouble!" Katrina called out behind her.

 _What? Tomas should be locked up. There's no way that could be him!_

Seeing Katrina get further and further away from him Alfred grit his teeth and started to run after her.

...

* * *

...

Tomas hurriedly walked down the alley and away from the disturbance he had caused. He had been too careless and bumped into a travelling merchant's hand cart. Being targeted by Eight Fingers was truly terrifying. They were a huge organisation that could strike from anywhere at anytime at anyone.

 _What were they hoping to achieve though? Were they trying to recruit me?_

Thoughts spun through Tomas' mind as he walked through the alley, but they left more questions than answers.

Suddenly Tomas heard padded footsteps coming fast towards him. _An assassin?_ Tomas pulled out his dagger and gripped it tightly in his hand as he waited around one sharp corner of the alley. The assassin's footsteps drew nearer and he readied himself to attack the assassin as they ran past.

"Katrina wait!"

Hearing a voice he vaguely recognised and a name he definitely did, Tomas chose to grab the assassin as they came around instead of directly stabbing them. A moment later he was glad that he had.

"Katrina? It really is you!"

"Tomas!"

Katrina and Tomas hugged fiercely both happy and relieved to have found each other.

"Tomas?" Alfred had caught up and stood awkwardly to the side.

"Alfred! It's good to see you too!" Tomas smiled, happy to be seeing so many of his allies.

"Tomas, I've been looking for you everywhere! Where have you been?" Katrina asked, tears streaming down her face.

Tomas grimaced turning serious as he wiped the tears from Katrina's face with the back of one hand.

"It isn't safe here. Alfred.. I'll need you and your team's help. I was abducted by Eight Fingers. I have only just escaped and I'm in need of allies." Tomas said looking to Alfred.

Katrina covered her mouth with a hand and gasped in shock. Alfred looked confused but quickly recovered.

"Of course! My team and I have been searching for you since you went missing, we'll definitely aid you. Will you come with us back to the Blue Doors? Eight Fingers would be crazy to try anything there with so many adventurers around."

"Thank you, I'm grateful. I was initially heading to the healing temple to try and find Katrina anyway. Let's all go to Blue Doors then." Tomas smiled finally feeling safe. With Alfred and Katrina here, who were both wearing full equipment, Tomas could start to relax.


	12. Chapter 12: A New Adventure

**Part 2, Chapter 12: A New Adventure**

"Do I really have to dodge his arrows?" Jake questioned, his face full of disbelief.

"You said you wanted to take your training to the next level. Besides a couple of arrows won't kill you even if you do fail to dodge them all. Well.. there's a good chance you won't die." Kalelor smiled reassuringly at Jake.

Barker looked on impassively as Jake went and stood in front of the archery target.

"Hmm.. Your right, more motivation for me to dodge." Jake said and started to bounce up and down on his toes.

"That's the spirit Jake! Next we'll work on your magic resistance training. I've a few spells I want to try out on live targets. We might have to get Katrina's help though.. Just to be safe."

"Arrr.. No. I'll draw the line here Kalelor."

"Hmm? Pity. I was even willing to help you.." Kalelor said innocently.

"Are you ready Jake?" Barker called out.

"Yeah go ahead." Jake called back.

Barker suddenly gave an evil smile and began to use martial arts.

"[Fury of the Winds]! [Double Shot]! [Accuracy]!"

"What the Fuck! Arr.."

Jake suddenly started to dodge erratically as a storm of arrows came flying towards him.

"[Evasion]! [Agility Boost]!"

Jake bent his body backwards and started to weave his body at weird angles, sometimes flipping through the air. Although he was dodging the arrows at amazing speed with fluid movements, many arrows left long rips in his clothes and flesh as they grazed past him.

"That was a bit harsh Barker." Kalelor stated casually.

"You crazy fucker! Stop shooting!" Jake called out desperately.

Soon after, the hail of arrows stopped and Jake collapsed on the ground heaving in great breaths of air.

Kalelor raised an eyebrow, noting that Barker had run out of arrows.

"What the.. Jake you're injured!"

All three of them turned at the sound of Katrina's voice.

"Just in time Katrina. As you can see Jake is in need of your care.."

Kalelor suddenly stopped and stood up quickly from his chair.

"Tomas?!"

 _Shit! How did he escape? Our plan is ruined. Does he know about our involvement? Is he here to get revenge? Wait.. Let's see what he knows first._

Kalelor's mind rushed with thoughts, questions and emotions as he saw Tomas walk in after Katrina. Alfred followed behind him which raised even more questions for Kalelor. He shot him a quick glance and Alfred gave a slight shrug.

 _What the fuck does that mean? How much does he know?_

Kalelor shot a glance at Barker who had kept silent and started to casually retrieve some arrows. Spotting Jake, whose mouth hung open as if he was trying to trap flies, Kalelor had a burst of panic.

 _Don't give us away Jake!_

"It's good to see you again Kalelor. I should thank you. I heard that you tried to help find me when I was missing." Tomas said with a slight smile.

 _Does he know? Is he just biding his time?_

A cold gleam of sweat appeared on Kalelor's forehead as he forced a smile.

"Arr.. Tomas. It's good to see you safe! I'm sure you have much to discuss. Should we head inside?"

Kalelor watched Tomas' reaction attentively, but was disappointed by Tomas' poker face.

"Indeed. I have much to discuss. I'll follow you then."

The members of Morning Star were followed by Katrina and Tomas as they made their way into Blue Doors. They sat at a private booth inside and ordered drinks. Tomas took the opportunity to order a big meal as well.

Tomas explained what had happened to him over the meal. Several times during his recitation, Katrina and Jake turned green at the details and covered their mouths in shock. By the end, Katrina was quietly sobbing, Alfred was frowning and Jake was staring wide eyed at Tomas with his hand still covering his mouth. Barker was impassive and Kalelor was rubbing his chin staring at Tomas with interest.

"So that's what happened.." Kalelor mused. "Did you manage to discover any leads on who did this to you?"

"Yes," replied Tomas. "The men who were in the building all had tattoos that I recognised as being affiliated with Eight Fingers. I believe Eight Fingers wants me for some reason. I haven't been able to determine why. None of this makes a whole lot of sense, but, I know that the capital is no longer safe for me. I've come to ask for your help."

"I see.."

 _He doesn't know! He thinks Eight Fingers is to blame! Mwah haha.. The plan can still work out for us!_

Kalelor smiled and gave a sly glance over to Barker and Alfred.

"Of course we'll help you Tomas. In fact, you could also help us. As you know, we were recently promoted to platinum-rank due to our contributions during the demon invasion. I noticed during that time, when we took down the Hezrou demon, that we made a good team together. Katrina and you made up for the deficiencies in our current team's composition. Tomas, you and Katrina should join our team! We'll then finally have the Guild-recommended party size. As fellow team members of Morning Star you'll receive an equal portion of any rewards and our full protection and support. Plus.. you'll also get an exclusive, high-quality Morning Star cape! What do you think?" Kalelor asked excitedly.

*Smack!*

Everyone glanced at Barker who had just face-palmed himself.

"You had to ruin a good offer by mentioning those bloody capes." Barker muttered.

Completely ignoring this small outburst from Barker everyone turned back to Tomas awaiting his answer.

"To be honest, after our leader and Markus died I had thought to give up being an adventurer." Tomas began. "But after what Eight Fingers did to me, I realize that the only way to protect myself and the ones I care about is to become stronger. I'm willing to join your party Kalelor. What do you think Katrina?"

"If you're OK with it, then I'm also OK with joining Morning Star." Katrina replied.

Kalelor beamed and gave a small fist pump.

 _I love it when things just fall into place!_

"With your addition to our team we will immediately become one of the most powerful platinum-ranked adventurer teams in the Re-Estize Kingdom. We'll go to the guild tomorrow and register you both as part of Morning Star. We'll also look for a quest that takes us out of the capital for a while. This will prevent Eight Fingers from finding you Tomas and allow the situation to cool down."

 _It'll also prevent you from investigating any further!_

Tomas nodded slowly, looking pleased, Katrina and Jake both gave nervous smiles for different reasons. Alfred gave a meaningful look indicating he wanted to talk and Barker just took a swig of his beer looking completely unperturbed by the situation or any of its results.

"Well then, I suggest you rest here for the night Tomas. Let's all gather here again tomorrow morning for breakfast!"

...

* * *

...

The next morning, after a hearty breakfast, both the new and old members of Morning Star arrived at the Adventurer's Guild Headquarters.

Jake, Alfred and Barker were sitting in front of the noticeboard looking for appropriate quests. Kalelor, Katrina and Tomas were over by the counter disbanding Snake Suits and registering for Morning Star.

"How about this one for the Magician's Guild? Capturing a Mandlehopper from the Draconic Kingdoms for experimentation?" Jake asked.

"Capture? I prefer kill quests, much easier." Barker replied.

"Aha.." Jake suddenly became furtive and leaned towards the others before whispering, "So, what do you guys think about this situation with Tomas?"

"I don't like it. How are we supposed to form a good relationship with Tomas and Katrina with this dirty dark secret now between us? This whole situation has ruined my prospects with Katrina and I fear I'll never fully embrace Tomas now." Alfred voiced his concerns.

"I agree. It will always feel like we're two groups now. We'll never fully be one party. I'm concerned about what effect this will have on our teamwork. Oh and Alfred.. It's a good thing that your relationship with Katrina didn't go any further. Now that she is in our party you should back off, lest your relationship troubles fracture the entire party." Jake continued.

"Pah. It's over now anyway. I shouldn't have been so trusting of Kalelor's advice. He probably knew this would happen and planned it this way." Alfred brushed off the comment. It was time to face reality anyway, it was common knowledge that it was often a bad idea to sleep with your adventurer teammates.

"You're both idiots." Barker interrupted. "It's incredibly easy to lie through your teeth and keep secrets concerning your companions. I've been doing it for years."

Jake and Alfred turned to look thoughtfully at Barker, trying to imagine what secrets he was keeping from them. It was certainly true that Barker kept a lot of secrets from them, in fact, they hardly knew the guy.

"But, you're still dependable when it counts. And Kalelor trusts you and we trust Kalelor." Jake reasoned.

Barker broke out in laughter at Jake's statement.

"Well.." continued Jake. "We trust Kalelor to do what's in the best interests of Morning Star at least."

"Exactly!" Barker explained. "You can scheme and lie and plot and steal as long as we're not in a life and death situation, and only if you do it for the interests of the group as a whole. Once we're out and about doing the business of monster hunting, there isn't any room for plots among ourselves. It's us humans versus the world. I suggest you bury whatever feelings of guilt that you may have deep down, such that it never surfaces again. You should both accept the same truth that Tomas holds to and start proving yourselves trustworthy to him. Trust me, we have it easy, he already trusts us!" Barker smiled innocently.

"We can only pray for the best. Besides I like to think we did more good than bad in this." Alfred added. "We did help Tomas overcome his destructive behaviour and put him back on the road to righteousness after all."

Jake nodded in agreement.

"I'm glad that's all done!" Shouted a loud voice across the room.

Jake and the others looked up and saw Kalelor leading Tomas and Katrina back over to them. Tomas and Katrina were staring at Kalelor back in puzzlement wondering why he suddenly shouted.

Barker gave a short laugh at the sight and waited for them to arrive.

"Alright fellas, it's time to join me in welcoming the newest members of Morning Star to our team. Tomas the Guardian and Katrina the Priestess!" Kalelor gave a wide smile and started to applaud Tomas and Katrina.

Jake, Alfred and even Barker, albeit half-heartedly, joined him in the applause.

"Thank you!" Tomas spoke, eyes welling up with emotion. "I didn't think I would be joining another adventurer team so quickly after my last one ended in tragedy. But, with everything that's happened to me, it's good to know I'll have the support of you all from now on!"

"Thank you as well. It's good to move forward, even if sometimes someone has to push you." Katrina said sincerely.

"Yes, very good! Now, Alfred did you manage to find a quest to get us out of the capital for a few months?" Kalelor questioned.

"Arr.. No not yet. We haven't been through them all though." Alfred responded.

"So slow?" berated Kalelor before turning to look at the board. "Let's see here.. How about this one? It's a quest to escort a noble to the Land of the Drake Riders and to.. help him train a drake to ride? Arr.. Let's just forget about that one. Here's one to eliminate an orc warchief named Garuk-Krul who's become a threat in the forests south of E-Pespel. Hmm.. the rewards fairly generous as well.. Bah I hate to turn it down but we need something that will take longer to complete."

"How about this one?" Tomas said and handed over a platinum-ranked quest for Kalelor to inspect.

"Hmm? A quest to find a rare moonlight flower that's only found on the peaks of the Azerlisia Mountains. Said to contain wonderous alchemical properties this flower is highly sought after by alchemists the world over. The guild will pay a large bounty for any and all flowers found." Kalelor looked up and smiled. "A guild fetch quest. This is exactly what we need! It'll be cold on the mountains in winter though, let's prepare thoroughly."

...

* * *

...

Three days later, on the first day of winter, the six members of Morning Star left Re-Estize on horseback, wearing their Morning Star capes, fully equipped for a long and arduous journey.


	13. Chapter 13: The Journey East

**Part 2, Chapter 13: The Journey East**

Kalelor scratched his shaggy beard. He generally hated growing beards because they itched and ruined his sex appeal, however, on the road the convenience of not shaving outweighed the cons. Even Katrina went all natural on the road. In fact, the only one that didn't was Jake. He spent a good twenty minutes each morning grooming and preening himself while the others were still asleep.

Honestly, Kalelor just couldn't see the point. Why make an effort for the same old people who you're going to see day in and day out. There were the occasional travellers that tried to join them in order to get a free escort, but, Kalelor drove them away, telling them to either pay for the service or to fuck off. He hadn't had any takers.

It was perhaps for this reason that the members of Morning Star, with the exception of Jake and Katrina, looked pretty rugged and thuggish when they were stopped by a large group of armed bandits.

"Is this really necessary?" called out Kalelor to the group of thugs before him.

When no-one responded and they just continued to look threatening, Kalelor let out a sigh and pulled out the chain from beneath his clothes. This revealed his platinum adventurer's plate, which Kalelor proceeded to hold out and display to the bandits.

"I'll forgive you for not noticing it before, but, as you can now see, we are platinum-ranked adventurers. So fuck off!"

Upon seeing the plate around Kalelor's neck many of the bandits began to exchange worried glances with each other and began to murmur amongst themselves. Kalelor waited impatiently atop his horse for the bandits to move on. The power of high-ranked adventurers was well known and no sane gang of bandits or brigands would willingly attack one.

Suddenly, the bandits became quiet and parted down the center revealing a large man wearing a full set of expensive-looking steel plate armour. The man had the visor of his helmet raised and was walking towards Morning Star.

"Steady men! These scrap collectors think they are adventurers! Bahahaha! Don't make me laugh! So they stole a few platinum plates from real adventurers, that don't make them so tough now does it?"

Kalelor looked at the man in disbelief as he attempted to convince his men that Kalelor and the others weren't real adventurers.

 _Who the fuck is this guy? How could he be so stupid?_

The man suddenly drew his sword and pointed it at Morning Star.

"I want their horses alive! Attack!" The man called out waving his sword forward and lowering his visor.

"Wait! Wait wait wait!" Kalelor called out and waved his hands in front of him causing the bandits to pause in their charge.

"At least let us dismount and tie up our mounts. Neither of us wants one of the horses to die now do we?" Kalelor questioned.

The armoured bandit leader was silent for a moment before he barked out some more orders.

"Hold for now! Let them dismount and tie up their horses. Then we attack!"

Kalelor rolled his eyes as he dismounted and led his horse to a tree off to the side of the road. The other members of Morning Star were looking concerned but Kalelor just shrugged.

"Look guys, I know it's not ideal, but we're just going to have to kill them all. I did warn them." Kalelor tried to explain to his group.

"I hate killing fellow humans." Katrina complained sullenly.

"Aye, I do too." lied Barker shamelessly.

Alfred scoffed, "At least we can try to think of it as protecting their future victims."

"Goddammit!" Kalelor complained. "I hate doing things for free. Remind me to write to the local lord of this area after we get back to the capital requesting compensation for this."

"Stop chatting away like women back there and hurry up and fight us like men!" called out the bandit leader.

Katrina rolled her eyes and looked slightly less hesitant to kill them.

"Ok, quick plan.. Stick together. Alfred and Tomas, prevent them from attacking Katrina, Barker and myself. Jake, you do the same, but I want you to focus more on offense and to kill as many as you can. Barker, you take out the ranged crossbowmen and archers and shoot anyone that tries to steal our horses during the fight. Katrina, I want you to focus on support magic and healing. I'll focus on offensive area of attack spells. Alright.. Let's do this!"

After securing their mounts, Morning Star formed a three point defense in the center of the road. The bandits had them surrounded on three sides and were mostly hidden in the trees to the side of the road.

"You know, it's not too late to.." Kalelor called out in a last attempt to avoid conflict.

"Attack!"

 _Arseholes! Didn't even let me finish!_

 _..._

* * *

...

Katrina instantly cast [Missile Barrier] which stopped the crossbow bolts and arrows that immediately followed the bandit leader's order. She then began to cast single target enhancement spells on the team. Even though she knew enhancement auras and group-effect magic spells, it was pointless to use it here. This was because the bandits would receive the same benefits when they got near enough.

Against such a low threat enemy, Katrina knew that this would be an uneventful fight for her. She just had to apply enhancement magic to her group which would grant massive offensive and defensive bonuses to them. With these enhancements and their already superior power and equipment she doubted that they would be injured by only this number of the bandits.

 _It's such a shame that it came to this._ Katrina thought idly to herself.

...

* * *

...

Kalelor watched as the bandits charged Alfred and Tomas' defense. He almost felt sympathy as Alfred casually stepped into a bandits path and shield bashed him away several yards. The next bandit was blown backwards into a tree by the force of Alfred's mace. Tomas too, had mercilessly stabbed a bandit through the throat before swinging his sword to the right and taking another bandit's arm off.

After the first few bandits, however, the sheer numbers of bandits forced Alfred and Tomas to fight defensively. They still killed the bandits but not as quickly, preferring to hold them up with their shields as they tried to cripple them.

As the bandits stalled just out of reach of Alfred and Tomas, Kalelor smiled and prepared his spell.

"[Arcane Hail]!"

A magical mist formed between Kalelor's outstretched arms and slowly drifted upwards and outwards to a group of bandits. Waving his arms in a mystical manner, Kalelor controlled the mist before suddenly clenching his fists. Glowing blue pinpricks of light formed in the mist before shooting down towards the ground.

The bandits who were focussed on Tomas and Alfred before them, failed to see the danger and were caught from above as magical bolts pierced them. The bandits who hadn't been wearing helmets died almost instantly when the bolts pierced their heads. Some bandits saw the magic form and were able to block the bolts with their shields. The ones without shields tried dodging with varying degrees of success. Some were killed and many were injured by this spell and Kalelor was happy with the results.

 _Hmm.. The results aren't bad.. That spell doesn't cost that much MP and is perfect for taking out weak bandits like these!_

[Arcane Hail] was a tier-1 area offensive spell and was comparable in strength to standard arrows. The bandits who had seen it coming were able to mitigate the damage and survive. Those with quality helmets and shields were also able to block the incoming magical bolts. It's area of effect wasn't that large but it could be remotely targeted. Thus it was ideally suited to the current circumstances.

Kalelor gave a satisfied smile and began to cast [Arcane Hail] again.

...

* * *

...

Jake was enjoying himself. He easily dodged and weaved through the bandits, unleashing death as he pleased.

 _These bandits are truly too slow!_

Jake was just parrying a sword slash from his left when he noticed a shield approaching his face from the right at high speed. Throwing himself to the left and raising his armoured plate shoulder, Jake managed to mitigate most of the force of the shield bash. It still caused him to become slightly off-balance and stumble a few steps, during which he felt a sword tug at the gambeson on his back.

 _Goddammit! Looks like I'll be sewing tonight!_

After recovering his posture, Jake turned to face this new threat.

"Give it up pretty boy! You're no match for me!" taunted the bandit leader.

"We'll see about that." smiled Jake eagerly, excited for the challenge.

Jake began to trade blows with the bandit leader. He parried or dodged all of the bandit leader's sword attacks, however, he couldn't take advantage as the bandit was able to block most of his attacks with his shield. The blows he did land on the bandit leader bounced harmlessly off his armour. Jake was finding it extremely difficult to land a telling blow. The bandit leader was also surprisingly skilled, probably equivalent to a gold-ranked adventurer.

 _This guy's armour.. He must have stolen it from a noble. It's truly hard to deal with without equivalent armour of my own. If only I had a Mythril sword…_

Jake's sword was made with steel and was very durable. It was tempered to a springy hardness along the spine and a much higher hardness along the edges, however, it wasn't the hardest of edges and couldn't maintain razor sharpness. There were some steel swords available that were tempered differently, prioritising hardness they were much sharper but tended to break and chip easier.

Mythril could be made both more durable than tempered steel and it's hardness could surpass even the most brittle of steel swords. The result would be a sword that was lighter, sharper and more durable than any steel sword available. Mythril swords truly trumped steel swords and could even cut through them without dulling or chipping. As such, if Jake had a mythril sword he would probably be able to cut through the steel armour. As it was now though, he had no chance.

As the fight between them wore on, Jake seriously considered using his trump card, the martial art, [Focus Battle Aura]. He truly didn't want to have to use it against a mere bandit though and held off.

Jake poked at the bandit leader with his longsword, probing his defenses again. The bandit leader easily blocked the attack with his shield.

Suddenly, Jake saw Alfred and Tomas come up behind the bandit leader and grab him, hurling him to the ground. They each then held one of the bandit leader's arms to the ground, pinning him in place.

"It looked like you needed some help Jake, and since we were already finished.." Tomas grinned, leaving the rest unsaid.

Jake smiled helplessly, rubbing the back of his neck and looking slightly embarrassed.

"He's armour.. Arr. Whatever." Jake said as he withdrew a dagger from his belt and approached the prone bandit leader.

"Wait! I give up! Have mercy. I promise never to harm anyone again!" the bandit leader frantically pleaded as he struggled futilely against Tomas and Alfred.

"Shaddup! Aren't you being a bit shameless? What did you expect?" Jake said as he carefully directed his dagger into the narrow slit of the bandit leader's visor.

With a quick plunge it was all over. Alfred and Tomas released the bandit leader's arms and stood up.

"Well then.." said Kalelor looking around at the scene of death all around him. At least twenty corpses were hacked, slashed and pierced apart, lying scattered around in a bloody and morbid display. "Might as well engage in a bit of friendly looting then. Shall we?"

...

* * *

...

The suicidal bandit attack was the only obstacle Morning Star came across during their three week journey east. Before them, looming up in the distance, lay the snow-capped peaks of the Azerlisia Mountains.

"They're beautiful aren't they?" Katrina asked to no-one in particular.

"They're deadly is what they are." responded Barker with grimace.

"They can be both." Kalelor said with a smile, looking eagerly ahead at them. "It'll be a challenge and an adventure both. These mountains will test our abilities and forge the bonds between us anew. Remember, our job is to look for a flower, but the real reason we came all the way out here, was for team bonding!"

Barker blew out his cheeks and rolled his eyes. Even Alfred and Jake looked awkwardly at Kalelor. Tomas and Katrina just looked at each other and shrugged.

"Don't worry, you all might be pessimistic now, but, I guarantee that when we come out of these mountains.. you'll all be singing songs and holding hands. Hell, you'll probably trust each other enough to catch you if you fell backwards off a table!"

An uncomfortable silence descended over the group and started to drag out until a horse snorted.

"Arr.. I take it you're not excited over that?" Kalelor asked deadpan, the silence continued.

"Seriously? None of you realized, that I was just fucking with you?" Kalelor gave a heavy sigh. "Anyway.. We'll take the horses as far as they can go and then set them free. We'll try to make camp just below the snow-line by nightfall. I suggest you all get your snow gear ready now. Oh and keep an eye out for frost trolls. The information I bought back in Re-Estize said this area was infested with them."


	14. Chapter 14: The Azerlisia Mountains

**Part 2, Chapter 14: The Azerlisia Mountains**

Perhaps it was ironic, since Kalelor had warned them about frost trolls, but it was probably just bad luck that instead of frost trolls they ran into a frost giant.

Frost giants were A++ difficulty-rank monsters that could even threaten dragons. It was extremely rare and thus tremendously unlucky for them to come across one this far down the mountain. Needless to say, Kalelor and the others wordlessly turned their mounts around, back in the direction they had come, and hightailed it out of there. Fortunately, the frost giant had not given chase and was content to simply roar a challenge at them, which, they wisely ignored.

A day later, they finally managed to make their way up the mountain to just below the snow line. The members of Morning Star dismounted and packed up their gear, loading it into huge backpacks that they loaded onto their shoulders. Tomas and Alfred were able to carry the most and Kalelor and Katrina took full advantage of this.

They also changed into snow gear. Alfred and Tomas had furs lining their armour and joints. Jake and Barker wore thick trench coats over their armour, which, when combined with their gambesons was ample protection from the cold. Kalelor and Katrina wore stylish full length winter coats over warm woollen jumpers. They all wore insulated gloves and head coverings of some form. Kalelor even had his Morning Star cape draped about him shamelessly.

Kalelor made Jake go first in-order to break the thigh-high snow as they trudged up the steep mountain paths. Initially keen, Jake soon blunted to the task and started to complain incessantly. After putting up with Jake's complaining for over two hours, Tomas volunteered to take over the lead role. After which, Kalelor implemented a 1-hour rotating roster between the three frontline fighters.

Eventually they reached a wide plateau near the top of the Azerlisia Mountain range.

"Now this.. This is breathtaking." Jake said in awe as he looked with wide eyes at the snowy mountains that sprawled before them.

For as far as the eye could see, black and grey granite peaks and ridges protruded majestically from the snowy landscape. Snow speckled, dark green forests could be found in the few deep valleys that were within view. Wisps of white clouds clung to a few of the higher peaks as the sun hung low in the sky and cast a golden orange light over everything.

"Indeed.. By the Gods, it's a shame that most of humanity will never see such a sight. We're too confined to our lands and cities." Alfred reflected.

"It's because humanity is too weak to claim the world. What little we have was given to us by virtue of the Four Great Gods. If humanity ever wants to enjoy everything that this world has to offer, then we have no choice but to get stronger, else be suppressed and enslaved by the stronger races." responded Tomas with some bitterness.

"Exactly! We have to get stronger." Kalelor looked on pleased. "For now though, let's focus on our mission. The Moonlight Flower will most likely be found deeper within the mountains. Let's stop here for today though and continue on tomorrow."

...

* * *

...

Morning Star trekked on, deeper into the mountains. Their progress was slow and tiring. They saw traces of monsters but were fortunate enough not to run into any directly. The days were long and cold, the nights were even more so. By this stage of the journey, even Jake had given up on shaving.

On the fourth day, they came to a small forested valley. As they made their way down to the valley floor, Barker discovered tracks in the snow.

"There is are at least twelve of them, from the paw prints I'd say it's a pack of wolves. This is probably their hunting grounds, they must be nearby."

"I see. We won't be able to relax and set up camp until we've eliminated them. Barker, lead the way. We'll track them back to their den." ordered Kalelor.

They followed the tracks across the valley and arrived on the other side in about two hours. Not far above the treeline they saw a small cave entrance in the cliffside. A wolf howled in the distance, perhaps trying to warn them.

As if the howl was a call to muster, however, wolves began to appear around them. They growled threateningly as the adventurers stopped before them.

"Shall we attack first then?" questioned Kalelor nonchalantly.

"Sounds good to me." Barker responded before releasing an arrow that pierced the side of the largest wolf.

It seemed everyone, including the wolves, looked at that arrow for a moment. A short moment later, the injured wolf let out a whimper and the remaining wolves leaped forward to attack.

Kalelor positioned himself behind Alfred and channelled several [Magic Arrow] spells through his new magic staff. He was pleased with the result. The magic staff he had bought after the demon invasion had been enchanted to assist in casting the tier-1 spell [Magic Arrow]. By infusing the staff with mana before combat he could 'charge up' the staff. During combat he could release the charged magic for a fraction of the usual mana cost of the spell. The mana storage crystals were one of the main reasons that magic staves were so expensive. This rather simple staff had cost him 23 gold coins.

Wolves weren't very powerful, and they posed little threat to a team of platinum-ranked adventurers. In short order, the adventurers had killed the majority of the wolves and watched as the survivors fled.

"Alright." Kalelor said as he picked up his backpack from the ground. "Let's use that cave up ahead as a base camp. We'll explore this valley for a few days and see if we can find this flower. Let's gather up these wolves as well, no-sense in letting them go to waste. Barker, I expect you'll be able to cook them up nicely."

"Aye, will do. Quick vote then; spit roast or stew?" Barker questioned the group as he bent to drag a wolf up to the cave.

Curiously, everyone except Katrina voted for the spit roast.

...

* * *

...

"Is this it?" Tomas asked, poking at a small white flower sprouting out from some grass.

Kalelor sighed and shook his head. "Nope.. I told you what it looks like."

"How long do we continue to search before we move on? It's already been three days."

"We'll pack up tomorrow morning and try searching elsewhere if we don't find it after today." Kalelor responded looking slightly annoyed.

The members of Morning Star had split up into three groups to search for the flower. These groups were formed so that there was a magic caster in each group. The groups were: Jake and Katrina; Alfred and Barker; Tomas and Kalelor. The only member who had complained about the group assignments was Alfred, but he had capitulated in the end.

"Let's keep moving." Kalelor added soon after.

Tomas looked up from the weed and nodded. "Thanks again, Kalelor."

"Hmm? What for?"

"For letting me join Morning Star and for taking me away from everything that happen in Re-Estize. Even though this journey has been hard, these past few weeks have been the happiest I've felt since the demon invasion. These mountains really give one a different perspective towards life. At it's core life is a struggle to survive, and out here all the other bullshit is stripped away. It's a refreshing change."

"Aha.. How are you coping with the loss of your previous comrades?" Kalelor probed.

"It's still hard when I think about it. But I see now, that seeking oblivion through alcohol and drugs was the wrong path. My friends would not have wanted me to end up in that pitiful state. Instead I've decided to seek greater strength so that in the future I'm able to protect both myself and the ones I care about."

"I see.. That's a good way to be." Kalelor replied.

The two of them then drifted into silent contemplation as they searched absently for the moonlight flower.

...

* * *

...

"So.. you still haven't told me who your first kiss was with." Jake asked Katrina playfully as they walked about the snow covered forest.

Now that they had started to camp in one spot, Jake had taken up shaving again and his breath misted about his smooth ruddy cheeks as he asked the question.

"Jake! Err.. fine! I'll tell you, as long as you promise to stop pestering me with personal questions!" Katrina responded, flustered.

Jake gave a his flashiest grin and nodded, "Cross my heart!"

Katrina breathed out a deep sigh.

"I was about seven years old and there was this cute baker's boy that treated me nicel.."

"OK, just let me stop you there! I don't want to hear about some little kiddy kiss. Tell me about your first truly passionate kiss!" Jake interrupted, clenching his fists in emphasis on the word 'passionate'.

Katrina smiled shyly and stopped to look at Jake, "Well you see.. I joined the temple when I was twelve years old and since then I've been devoted to my duties as a priestess. Even when I became an adventurer, I shied away from relationships."

"Wait a second.. You're telling me, that not only have you never been intimate with another person, but you have also never had a real kiss?" Jake replied, looking surprised.

Katrina cheeks flushed and she looked away, annoyed at Jake's reaction, and started walking again.

"Wait! I'm sorry. Look, I think it's nice that you're this way." Jake said, trying to placate Katrina.

Katrina breathed out another deep sigh and calming down, turned to look at Jake. "Alright, no more personal questions! Let's just get back to looking for this damn flower already."

"Aye, you're the boss!" Jake smiled and gave her a wink.

Katrina rolled her eyes but gave a small smile in return.

...

* * *

...

"See that up ahead?" Barker pointed up to a slope at the edge of the valley.

Alfred looked up to see what Barker was pointing at. Above was a granite cliff face and Barker seemed to be pointing about fifty meters above its base. Squinting Alfred could make out patches of snow clinging to rocks jutting out from the cliff face.

"What are you pointing at? I can't see anything up there except snow and rocks." Alfred replied.

"You must be blind! Look! Up there! Can't you see it?"

"Goddammit! I can't see it. Just tell me what it is." Alfred replied angrily.

"Well it's a flower obviously. It has wide blue leaves and a single large trumpet-shaped white flower is pointing up towards the sky. I think it's what we've been looking for."

"You can see all that?" asked Alfred looking dubiously at Barker. He still couldn't see anything.

Barker scoffed and rolled his eyes.

"Alright, even if it is there. How are we going to get it? Are you going to climb up there?" Alfred continued.

"You know I could. But let's go get the others first. We'll need to use Kalelor's preservation magic as soon as we pluck it anyway."

Alfred nodded and the two of them set out to find the others. With Barker's ranger skills, it didn't take long.

...

* * *

...

Barker stopped to rest on an outcropping of rock. He had almost climbed all the way up to the moonlight flower. His forearms were burning and his legs ached. His fingers were also red raw and freezing.

Far below him, the rest of Morning Star had gathered and were watching him climb up the cliff face.

Blowing on his fingers, Barker looked at the outcroppings and planned the rest of his route. Taking a deep breath, he reached out and grabbed a handhold. Steadying himself into a lean, he lifted his knee and dug his boot into a small crevasse. Barker pushed himself up with one leg and proceeded to quickly climb the last few meters to the moonlight flower.

Barker hauled himself up and over the final outcrop that jutted out of the cliff and found himself on a narrow ledge. Barker was surprised to discover that this ledge seemed to lead right down to the valley floor. It was completely indiscernible from the base of the cliff and could only be seen from this perspective.

"Hey! There's a path up to here!" Barker called out to the others below him.

"What?!" yelled back Kalelor.

"A path!" Barker pointed to where the path began.

Barker watched for a bit as the others walked to the base of the ledge that led up to him. Once they found it and started to make their way up, Barker turned around and looked at the moonlight flower, impressed with it's beauty.

Tired and cold, Barker wrapped his cloak about him tightly and decided to rest against the wall of the cliff. As he went to lean back against the wall he let out a yelp as he continued to fall and was incredibly astonished when he landed on his back.


	15. Chapter 15: The Forgotten Tomb

**Part 2, Chapter 15: The Forgotten Tomb**

"Interesting.." Kalelor said as he passed his hand back and forth between the rock-wall illusion. "Well done for finding this Barker."

"Who the hell would put an illusionary wall all the way out here?" questioned Jake, looking puzzled. "I mean, we're in the middle of nowhere already!"

"It is indeed intriguing." Kalelor responded, looking thoughtful.

"Whoever it was, they obviously didn't want anyone to find it." Alfred added.

"How long do you think it has been here?" pondered Jake. "Maybe we're the first ones to discover it in thousands of years? If so, there might be unguarded treasure in there!"

An avaricious glint sparkled in Kalelor's eyes at the mention of treasure. "Let's go in and see what we can find!" Kalelor said eagerly.

"Wait! The fact that there is a magical illusion spell concealing the entrance means that this cave might have other magical traps or defences. We should be careful going forward." Katrina cautioned.

"Arr.. Of course. Alfred you lead the way. I'll follow behind you, the rest behind me. Tomas, you bring up the rear. Let's go!" said Kalelor excitedly.

The adventurers passed through the illusionary wall and entered a narrow passage in the rock. They walked along it in pitch darkness until Kalelor summoned a small orb of radiance.

Alfred walked at the front, shield raised before him, cold sweat on the back of his neck. He had the distinct feeling that he was walking towards an ancient evil. The eerie light from the magical orb cast stark shadows along the passage and caused Alfred's eyes to dart all over the place looking for hidden dangers.

"I've a bad feeling about this place." Alfred's whisper carried to those behind him.

"I feel an evil aura emanating from deep within this mountain." Katrina whispered back.

"Why are you whispering?" whispered Jake.

"Because it adds to the tension and it seems appropriate." whispered Kalelor in reply. "But in all seriousness, what kind of evil aura do you feel, Katrina?"

"It's full of malice. Great suffering must have occurred in this place." came Katrina's whispered reply.

They continued in silence for a while longer before coming to a small cavern with multiple tunnels leading off from it. Gently glowing symbols were etched onto a waist-high pedestal in the middle of the room.

"What the hell is this?" said Barker casually.

"Shhh..!" Kalelor put his index finger up to his mouth and glared angrily at Barker. "Are you trying to ruin the atmosphere?" he whispered.

"You're fucking with us right now aren't you?" Barker said, looking questionably at Kalelor.

Kalelor suddenly broke into a smile and laughed. "Arr.. you got me! It was funny though wasn't it?"

"No. It wasn't." Alfred responded for the group, deadpan.

"Anyway.. About this room.. Any ideas what it's for?" Jake interceded, hoping to end that line of conversation.

"These passages might lead to different sections of an underground complex." proposed Tomas.

"I don't think so." responded Kalelor as he made his way to the central pedestal and began to inspect the glowing symbols. "If that were the case, it would suggest that this was the center of the complex, and we haven't passed through any other defences apart from the illusory wall at the entrance. As such, I believe that this room forms the first line of defence against intruders. It's probably some form of maze. The symbols above the exits must indicate the correct route. I hypothesise that the symbols on this pedestal have some relation with correct route as well."

Katrina came up beside Kalelor and looked closer at the glowing symbols, "I don't recognise these. Have you seen them before Kalelor?"

"I haven't seen them before either. I would guess that they form some ancient language, possibly from a different race." Kalelor responded.

"Oh that's great." said Jake. "How long will it take you to decipher it?"

"Arr.. It's impossible with just this." Kalelor said dejectedly. "If I had a whole book of this language, I might have been able to roughly translate it, given aw.. five or six years.. maybe.."

"So if we can't read it, what do we do now? Pack up and leave?" questioned Alfred.

"Don't be ridiculous." responded Kalelor. "Look there is five passageways and six of us. We'll simply each go down a different passage and use trial and error to determine the correct one."

"Err.. isn't that idea incredibly dangerous?" questioned Tomas, looking concerned.

"You're damn right it's dangerous! I'm not doing that." scoffed Barker, looking upset.

"Alright then Barker, have you got any ideas to put forward? Or are you just a fountain of negativity today?" Kalelor said, perhaps a touch too sensitive over Barker dismissing his plan.

"Aye, I've got a plan with more probability of success than yours." said Barker with a smile before digging his hand into one of his pockets and withdrawing a six-sided die.

"You're serious, aren't you?" Jake tried to confirm.

"Of course! If it lands on 1 to 5 we take the corresponding exit, counting clockwise from the entrance. If it lands on six, we leave. Simple." Barker explained.

"That's fucking stupid!" Kalelor criticised. "You're asking us to risk all our lives for what amounts to a guess?"

"No." said Barker. "I'm not. I'm asking us to trust to someone's luck. If we let the luckiest person here roll the die, then there's a better than 1 in 6 chance we'll choose the correct path. It's a damn sight better than your plan anyway."

"Fine! Who's the luckiest person here anyway." Kalelor looked around at his comrades.

"Obviously, it's Jake." answered Alfred matter-of-factly.

"What? How am I the luckiest person here?" questioned Jake look surprised at Alfred.

"Simple. You were born a noble, you could have been anything, you lucky bastard." Alfred responded.

"Whatever." Kalelor said rubbing his forehead and looking tired. "Just throw the die Jake."

"Alright then." Jake said accepting the die from Barker. "But, don't blame me if this fails."

Everyone watched with nervous anticipation as Jake cast the die.

"Two!" Jake read the result.

"Oh good." Kalelor sighed. "Alright same formation as before. Let's just pray that Jake really is lucky.."

Gathering up, with Alfred taking the lead, the members of Morning Star left the small cavern using the second exit clockwise from the entrance.

Shortly after, they heard a deep rumbling and felt vibrations originating from the cavern they had just left after they had travelled a short distance down the passage. Curious, they stopped and Barker went back to investigate. After a while he returned looking grim.

"It's bad." Barker said.

"What? You can't just say that. Elaborate.." Kalelor said exasperated.

"Well.. the orientation of the room has completed changed. The symbols above the exits have changed too. I don't even know which of the passages leads back to the valley anymore. We're trapped." Barker elaborated.

"That is bad." Kalelor said, looking concerned.

"What should we do now?" Tomas asked, seemingly unconcerned with this new development.

"I think our best option is to continue down this passage and see where it takes us. We'll deal with getting out of here when the time comes." Alfred proposed.

"Agreed. This place is rather sinister isn't it. Keep your guard up Alfred, who knows what lies beyond that corner. Everyone, spread out. I don't want one trap catching us all." Kalelor ordered.

Alfred continued on down the passageway with the others spread out in single file following behind him.

A short while later Alfred stopped and indicated with one hand that the others should silently stop too.

"I sense undead up ahead." Alfred whispered.

"Yes, I can sense them too. It feels like a small army of them." Katrina added.

"Barker, go into stealth and see what's beyond that next corner." Kalelor whispered the order.

Barker nodded and activated his magical amulet, turning into an indistinct shadow.

Kalelor watched it for a moment before he lost the ability to discern Barker's shadow from the surrounding darkness.

...

* * *

...

Barker crept along the passageway, keeping an eye out for hidden traps. He noticed that up ahead there appeared to be a dim glow.

As he got closer, the light became brighter. He peeked around one corner and saw a long straight corridor with mage-light spaced evenly along its length. At the end of the corridor were three undead guarding a door.

 _Damn._ Barker thought. _This will be difficult._

Retreating back along the passageway, Barker returned to the others.

...

* * *

...

Kalelor waited anxiously for Barker's return. The atmosphere in these passageways was truly oppressive. After a while, Barker appeared slowly from around the corner without his shadow enchantment active.

"What did you find?" asked Kalelor.

"It's bad." replied Barker.

"I swear to the Gods I will end you! Elaborate without us having to ask!" Alfred cautioned angrily.

"There's a long corridor up ahead lit with mage-light. At the end of the corridor are two armoured skeletons and an elder lich in front of an iron door." Barker explained succinctly.

"A goddamn elder lich! " Kalelor rubbed his forehead as he swore. "Presumably it's the master of this place. I wonder what it's doing just standing in front of a door though? Is it waiting for us? Maybe it's planning to just continuously cast [Fireball] if we try to run down that corridor. Then, even if we do make it to within melee range, the armoured skeletons will protect it."

"If we can make it all the way to the end of the corridor, Alfred and I should be able to block the skeletons long enough for Jake to come through the middle and engage the elder lich." Tomas suggested.

"Yes," said Alfred. "Key point being _if_ we can make it to the end of the corridor."

"I have spells that can boost fire, magic and physical defence, as well as mental fortitude and vitality." Katrina added helpfully.

"Yes, I can also increase your armour's defense and boost your magical resistance. But it will only help a little. It won't completely nullify the damage you and Alfred will take." Kalelor warned Tomas.

"It's fine. We'll manage somehow. This fight will be tough though, an elder lich has a devastating magical arsenal. Jake, we'll depend upon you to take care of the elder lich as quickly as possible."

"I won't let you down." Jake replied, looking determined.

"Barker, do you have bludgeon-type arrows?" Kalelor asked.

"Yes, but I only carry a couple in case of emergencies. I wasn't expecting to face undead out here." Barker replied apologetically.

"That's fine, two should be enough for this fight. Alright, let's apply the magic then." Kalelor said.

Alfred applied a holy spell that increased damage against undead to Jake and Tomas' swords. This would offset the skeletons' racial resistance to slashing and thrusting weapons. He also applied another holy spell that increased the effectiveness of shields at blocking magical attacks on both his and Tomas' shields.

"[Spell Resistance II], [Fire Resistance II], [Blessing of Mental Fortitude], [Blessing of Vitality], [Shield of Faith]!" Katrina cast her spells.

After casting these spells on Jake, Alfred and Tomas, Katrina had used about a quarter of her mana.

"[Reinforce Armour], [Magical Defense II]!" Kalelor cast his defensive enhancement spells as well.

"Alright, I feel awesome!" Jake said smiling while clenching a fist.

"Don't be too confident. These enhancement spells are the bare minimum we'll need in order to confront this elder lich. As you know, elder liches are masters of undeath and powerful magic casters, they have a difficult rating of A-class and are capable of using tier-3 spells. This will not be easy." Tomas cautioned.

...

* * *

...

"Ready?" whispered Tomas to Jake and Alfred.

They gave a short nod in reply and Tomas looked back to the others.

"Alright, follow behind me when I go."

Hunching his shoulders and holding his shield out in front of him with two hands, Tomas looked to Alfred who was in a similar stance. Giving a short nod, they both ran around the corner and started to sprint to the other end of the corridor.

After a disappointingly short moment, Tomas saw the lich launch a head-sized fireball at him. As it sailed through the air, Tomas gritted his teeth, shut his eyes and held his breath, preparing for the impact.

*Boom!*

The fireball exploded in the centre of Tomas' shield and the force of it completely stopped his momentum and even caused him to stumble back a step. He grunted in pain, feeling burns throughout the exposed sections of his body. His metal armour was radiating intense heat and he could smell the charred remains of fur and hair. He could feel the heat from his shield through his leather combat gloves and it hurt to keep holding it. Clenching his jaw, Tomas pushed himself forward into a run again.

...

* * *

...

Alfred had passed Tomas and took up the lead position. He managed to make it to the halfway point before a second fireball came flying through the air. Raising his shield and lowering his head, Alfred made a silent prayer to the Gods as he prepared to intercept the fireball.

*Boom!*

Like Tomas, Alfred's momentum was completely halted and he slid back a few inches from the force of the fireball. It was not something that one would want to take on their body directly. Even through the shield and it's enchantment, Alfred still coughed blood from the jarring impact. The flames that flowed around his shield released an immense heat that burnt the sides of his arms and his face. An awful tangy smell entered his nostrils and he realized that his previously magnificent black beard was now a patchy singed mess. Roaring in anger, Alfred charged forward once again.

...

* * *

...

Jake raised his forearm as he ran behind Tomas, shielding his face from the explosion of heat released from the fireball's impact.

Alfred roared just in front of him and launched himself forward once again. Tomas overtook Alfred, and Jake had to slow down slightly so that they both stayed in front of him.

The elder lich began casting another spell, and it wasn't clear if they could reach it before it released the spell. The three of them charged towards the undead forming an inverted triangle formation, with Tomas and Alfred at the front.

When they were almost upon the undead, the lich released a [Lightning] spell that was aimed at Alfred. It must have judged him to be the highest threat due to his mace.

A thin bolt of blue lightning arced towards Alfred and he tried to block it with his shield. Alfred's shield was ineffective, however, and the lightning pierced his shield and continued on through to his metal armour.

Alfred grunted painful and missed his next step causing him to fall headlong into the armoured skeleton on the right. The skeleton stabbed at him with it's sword but it was deflected by Alfred's armour and they both fell to the ground in a heap as Alfred crashed into him.

Tomas smashed his shield into the armoured skeleton on the left, clearing a path for Jake who activated his martial art [Agility Boost]. Leaping over the grievously wounded Alfred and the fallen armoured skeleton, Jake landed in front of the elder lich, his longsword raised.

"[Scare]!" the elder lich drawled, casting a spell.

Feeling an uncomfortable prickling sensation on the back of his neck, Jake resisted the lich's magic and clenching his jaw, launched himself into a flurry of attacks. He thrusted and slashed at the lich from all angles and tried to prevent it from casting more spells. Whenever he landed an attack, Jake would feel a bizarre vibration originate from his longsword and travel up his arms.

 _This must be what it's resistance to slash and thrust attacks feels like!_

Fortunately for Jake, they had anticipated this and cast a holy magic spell enhancement on his blade which was highly effective at damaging undead. Wherever his blows landed, a golden glow would flare and seemed to burn the undead.

Regardless, the lich showed no signs of pain and tried to fend of Jake's attacks with its arms.

...

* * *

...

Alfred was in immense pain. The [Lightning] spell had pierced his chest and reduced one lung to a charred mess. He grunted, drawing in a painful breath before coughing up blood. He felt the skeleton push him off and start to get back up. Alfred raised his head painfully and looked up as the skeleton drew back it's sword for a thrust.

*Throom!*

A thin flash came out from the corner of Alfred's vision and turned into a blunt arrow that hit the armoured skeleton right in the forehead. The skeleton's cranium cracked and it's head snapped back as it stumbled several paces backwards.

"[Lesser Heal]!"

Alfred felt Katrina's healing spell suffuse his body with a warm, slightly itchy sensation. He felt the skin around the hole in his chest pull and tug itself back together. The burns on his face and arms stopped hurting and the pain from his destroyed lung was slightly dulled.

Having recovered enough to rise to his feet, Alfred was able to block the next attack from the armoured skeleton.

"[Rock Spike]!"

Suddenly, the rock wall to Alfred's right deformed and a large spike shot out that pierced the skeleton in it's side with enough force to shatter the bones beneath it's armour. With Kalelor's spell having wounded and immobilised the armoured skeleton, Alfred used the martial art [Righteous Blow] and delivered a devastating attack to the skeleton's head with his mace.

Having already been cracked by Barker's arrow, the already weakened skull of the skeleton was shattered by Alfred's mace. With the head destroyed the rest of the skeleton fell apart.

Breathing deeply, Alfred looked to Tomas and saw that he had fared much better. Tomas was able to deftly parry and block the armoured skeleton's attacks and was slowly damaging it. It would only be a matter of time before the skeleton ran out of negative energy and collapsed.

Looking to Jake, Alfred saw that he had the elder lich completely on the defensive and it too would only be a matter of time before it was defeated.

Setting his jaw, Alfred slowly limped to behind the lich. Grabbing its shoulder, Alfred smiled with grim satisfaction as he caved in its skull with his mace.

Letting the breath escape painfully from his lungs, Alfred leaned against one side of the corridor and waited for Tomas and Jake to finish off the final armoured skeleton.

...

* * *

...

"Still, I can't believe it took three [Lesser Heal]s to fully repair your lung!" Katrina looked at Alfred concerned.

"I almost passed out from the pain. If it hadn't been for that vitality enhancement spell, I might have." Alfred replied.

"Anyway, good job! You and Tomas sure know how to take one for the team." said Kalelor cheerfully.

"Just don't ask us to do anything so suicidal again." Tomas replied, only half joking.

"It's a shame healing magic can't grow back my beard." Alfred complained, looking upset as he stroked what remained of his beard.

"Just shave it off like I do!" Jake insisted.

"I found the key." Barker said, putting an end to the casual conversation as he looked up from searching the elder lich's corpse.

"Arr.. good job Barker." Kalelor said. "With the master of this place defeated I wonder what's on the other side of the door it was guarding? Hopefully it's a treasure room, but, at the very least it should be something worthwhile."

"Be careful. I still feel an evil aura coming from the other side of that door." Katrina cautioned.

*Click!*

"Whatever it is, we'll find out soon enough." Barker said as he unlocked the door, opened it a fraction and peaked through to the other side.

*Pang!*

Barker threw his head back and kicked out, slamming the door back closed with his foot.

"What's wrong? And don't just say it's bad!" Kalelor demanded.

"It's.. There's a small army of skeleton warriors and archers on the other side. It looks like they're in some type of circular fort. Getting through would be difficult."

"Were there any more elder liches?"

"No, just regular skeletons from the quick glance I had. But, there were a lot of them. I would say over twenty skeleton warriors and perhaps a dozen archers all pointing their bows this way. I almost got hit by an arrow taking a look."

"So it's like that. I wonder why this elder lich was out here with only two guards when it had a small army behind it? Regardless, skeletons don't die easily compared to regular humans, so taking on so many at once will be difficult. Alfred, what do you think?" Kalelor asked.

"What were the positions of the skeletons on the other side?" Alfred asked Barker.

"The skeleton warriors were scattered around in front of the door. The skeleton archers were spread evenly atop a circular wall that curved towards to door. There appeared to be a portcullis directly in the centre of the wall. I didn't see a way up to the archers, but the wall wasn't very high. We might be able to climb up it."

"I see. If we can eliminate the archer threat we'll have a better chance. Do you think it would be possible to lure the skeleton warriors into this corridor and take them out one at a time? That way the archers won't be able to shoot at us when we do."

"It could work." Tomas pondered. "We should at least try it."

"Ok, we'll go with Alfred's plan. Tomas you open the door and try to draw the skeleton warriors into the corridor." Kalelor instructed.

The members of Morning Star retreated down the corridor with the exception of Tomas, who stayed by the door. Once the others were in position, Tomas hurled the door open and raised his shield in front of him.

*Pang!* *Ping!* *Pang!*

Multiple arrows rebounded off of Tomas' shield as he retreated slowly backwards. The noise of the impacts drew the attention of about six of the skeleton warriors who raised their weapons and started to chase after Tomas.

Drawing the skeletons deeper into the corridor and out of the archers' sights, Morning Star easily defeated them while sustaining no injuries.

Repeating this method a few more times, they were able to easily clear out most of the skeleton warriors on the other side of the door.

"So what's the plan to deal with the archers?" huffed Jake as the last skeleton fell.

"With the area in front of the wall cleared, we'll have a clear path to it. Alfred and Tomas, you two have the greatest protection from arrows so I want you both to run out first…" Kalelor explained his plan.

...

* * *

...

Jake breathed in deeply, and exhaled. Tomas looked back at him and Jake nodded letting him know he was ready.

Alfred flung open the iron door and ran into the courtyard on the other side. Tomas followed closely after. Arrows filled the air but the majority rebounded harmlessly of their shields and plate armour. Tomas grunted, catching an arrow in his side. Not slowing, they ran towards the fort's wall.

Jake entered the courtyard a moment after the first volley of arrows fell. He sprinted after Alfred, activating his martial art [Evasion] as he did. The majority of the next volley of arrows were aimed at Tomas and Alfred, but two came for him. Throwing his body to one side he managed to dodge one arrow completely and take a light graze with the second.

Alfred reached the far wall and turned, presenting his shield as a launching pad. Tomas stood to his side with his shield raised, trying to protect him.

Jake pumped his legs with all his strength and activated [Agility Boost]. Quickly closing the distance, Jake launched himself up to Alfred's shield.

When Jake landed on the shield, Alfred pushed up with all his strength. Jake similarly pushed off with all his strength. Propelling himself up into the air, Jake managed to reach the top of the parapet and hurled himself over the 13 ft high wall.

...

* * *

...

Katrina, Kalelor and Barker ran out once the others were halfway to the wall. With Tomas and Alfred having distracted the archers, they were relatively safe for the time being.

"[Missile Barrier]!"

Katrina cast her spell when they had reached the halfway point. Now that they had protection from arrows, the ranged members of Morning Star launched their counterattack against the skeleton archers.

"[Holy Arrow]!"

Katrina waved her hands and flung them outwards in the direction of a skeleton archer. A glowing golden arrow shot from her and impacted upon the skeleton's torso. The red lights in the skeleton's eye sockets dimmed and white smoke escaped from it's open jaw. Shortly after the skeleton crumbled to ash as the divine energy from Katrina's spell canceled out the negative energy imbuing the skeleton.

"[Magic Arrow]!"

Kalelor thrust his staff outwards as he cast his spell at another skeleton archer. The glowing blue magical arrow shot out and pierced the skeleton through its shoulder joint, shattering it. Unable to fire its bow with its arm disabled, the skeleton archer just stood there flapping its jaw.

Kalelor looked to Barker as he took aim with his bow. He had retrieved the blunt arrow he had used previously and was currently aiming it at another archer.

Looking up to the wall, Kalelor saw that the archers had uselessly started to return fire at them. He also spotted Jake making his way along the top of the wall, making quick work of the skeleton archers he came across.

"[Magic Arrow]!"

...

* * *

...

"Whoever set these defenses up all the way out here was surely protecting something valuable. I can't wait to see what it is." Kalelor said as they walked through the fort's exit.

"Either that or they were just incredibly anti-social." Jake replied.

"Is it a good idea to keep going further in? I've used up half my mana already and surely the others require a rest too." Katrina questioned.

"Relax Katrina. The undead we have faced so far haven't been very difficult apart from that elder lich. Besides, isn't it one of your sworn duties to cleanse undead wherever you see them?" Kalelor countered.

"I know that. But I still feel an immensely evil aura originating deep within these caverns. Maybe it's the true master of this place?" Katrina insisted.

"Look Katrina, if we come face-to-face with a threat we can't deal with, we'll just run. Won't we Kalelor?" Alfred confirmed.

"Aye, never be afraid to run away, that's my motto. We've come this far already though and I would hate to leave empty-handed. Let's continue for a bit more."

Following the path that led from the fort, Morning Star came to a long ramp that descended deep into an enormous cavern. Below they could see see lights scattered around the place and what looked like buildings.

"Well.." said Jake, feeling the evil emanating from below. "It's not too late to run away is it?"


	16. Chapter 16: Remnants

**Part 2, Chapter 16: Remnants**

Staring out at the huge ominous cavern before them, the members of Moning Star felt intimidated.

"Who could have built such a place?" asked Katrina.

"Who knows? Let's explore further. Look there." Kalelor pointed. "See those buildings? They might have something valuable in them. Let's head there first!"

Morning Star made their way down the ramp, reaching the floor of the uneven cavern. They stuck to the walls of the large underground lair and made their way over to the buildings Kalelor had pointed out previously. On the way Barker warned them several times as undead zombies and skeletons wandered aimlessly through the area.

Deciding it was less risky to clear these low level undead than to sneak past them, Morning Star cleansed them efficiently and with little difficulty.

Arriving at the entrance of the first of the buildings, Barker crept inside and searched for enemies and traps. When he finally returned he looked pale.

"You probably don't want to go in there." Barker warned.

"Why? Were there powerful undead or traps inside?" asked Kalelor, curious.

"No. Just.. Nothing worth seeing." Barker hesitated in replying causing Kalelor's curiosity to peak.

"Regardless, I want to see what's inside." Kalelor said and pointed for Alfred to lead the way.

Walking in, Kalelor was struck by a stench so foul his guts clenched and he almost puked. He covered his mouth with his sleeve and started to breath through it. He looked deeper into the building and discovered that the whole place was a large communal prison cell. Corpses and bodily waste littered the ground of the cell and Kalelor could just make out small monsters crawling their way around the midden heaps.

A huge dirty trough ran down the centre of the cell and it seemed to be connected by a sloping ramp to a large vat in the ceiling space. As Kalelor watched, a squirt of some brown yellowish sludge was released from the vat and started to slide down the ramp and into the trough.

Kalelor and the other members of Morning Star looked on in horror as the monsters, stimulated by the release of this sludge, raced for the trough. Several of them were snarling and gnashing at each other near where the trough met the ramp. Soon a fight seemed to break out between two of the monsters and they wrestled each other to the ground.

"You probably can't see them as well as I can.. Cast some light on them Kalelor and you'll see the truth." said Barker sorrowfully.

Kalelor summoned an orb of radiance and directed it up above the monster. Stark light bathed the area and the monsters howled and shied away from it.

"What the..!"

*Bleurrgh!*

Off to Kalelor's right Katrina vomited, which almost set off a chain reaction within the group. What he had previously thought to be scales was actually crusted excrement. What he had previously thought to be tentacles was actually unkempt hair. What he had previously thought to be forelegs were actually forearms. What he had previously thought to be monsters were actually humans.

"What is this place?" Jake asked, looking pale.

"I don't know. But those poor souls look more beast than human." answered Alfred solemnly.

"We have to help them." whispered Katrina, wiping her mouth.

"They're beyond saving. Who knows how long they've been like this, down here in the darkness. The most merciful thing we could offer them now is a quick death." Barker said firmly.

"We can't!" Katrina moaned in anguish.

"Hello! Do any of you understand me?" Jake suddenly called out.

"Tsk.. Jake! Keep it down." Kalelor whispered angrily.

"Pep.. People?" came a small voice in the darkness.

Kalelor startled at the voice and readied his weapon, frantically searching for the source. He noticed movement, and a small form crawled their way over to the edge of the cell. Kalelor couldn't help but gasp in disgust as the figure came further into the light. A skinny unwashed and unkempt naked man with dirty grey hair revealed a toothless smile. He had several hideous wounds and skin diseases. Pus and trickles of blood, urine and faeces seemed to cover the entirety of his body.

"Hel..Hello." it said, struggling to form the words.

Struggling to hold down the bile rising in his throat, Kalelor waved Katrina forward.

"Do what you can for him." he urged her.

Tears flowing down her face, Katrina first cast a cleansing spell that cleaned the old man and the surrounding area of filth. As Katrina cast a healing spell on the man next, Kalelor watched on with amazement. Katrina's healing spells induced an incredible transformation over the man. His skin, once broken and scabbed, turned smooth. His teeth, once missing, reformed. His eyes, once cloudy, became bright. His flesh, once hollowed, filled out.

The man looked in amazement at the smooth skin and revitalised flesh on his arms and legs.

"What?" The man's eyes suddenly widened as he spoke. He began to poke around his mouth with his tongue, excitedly feeling his teeth.

"Are you.. A goddess?" the man asked in awe, his words no longer hard to form.

Katrina wiped the tears from her face with the back of her wrist and gave the man a brilliant smile.

"No, I'm a priestess of one though. My name is Katrina. What's your name?"

"Name? I.. I've forgotten."

"How long have you been here?" Katrina asked gently.

"Long. Mother carried me on her back here. I remember fragments of light from back then."

"I see.. What became of you mother?"

The old man shifted and looked to the side absently.

"She.. They took her away. I never saw her again, only little ones returned. Then.. no one came again."

Kalelor nodded to Barker and grabbed Katrina's shoulder and pulled her away. Moving out of earshot of the old man he started whispering to her.

"You know we can't take him with us right? We can't afford to look after him."

"What are you saying?" Katrina eyes filled with anger.

"What's going on!" A strong voice suddenly called out.

Every member of Morning Star whipped their heads around to look at the newcomer. A deathly pale middle-aged man with not a single hair on his head had appeared in the doorway of the building. His dark eyes shot to the old man. Suddenly terrified, the old man ran back into the shadows and disappeared. Seeing this the newcomer eyed over Morning Star slowly before suddenly breaking out into a wide smile.

"You must have come from beyond! I've been told it exists, but I had my doubts. Come! Follow me. Let me show you around."

"Wait a second. Are you the master of this place?" Kalelor asked, confused. The man before him didn't look powerful, in fact he looked incredibly weak. How was this man walking about this place so casually when it was filled with undead?

"Master? I suppose I am. Uncle Ichthyosis says so anyway. However, there are areas even I cannot go."

Katrina suddenly started to march towards the man. The man watched her approach with a puzzled expression but didn't move.

*Slap!*

"How dare you treat these people like this!" Katrina yelled and brought her hand back for another slap.

"Arrrrrhhh!"

The man held his face and started screaming at the top of his voice. Shocked, Katrina took a step back. Tears started rolling down the man's face and he looked horrified at Katrina for a moment before turning and running away.

"Oh, look at that! You actually managed to traumatise him, Katrina." Barker said in mock approval.

"What the fuck was that?" Jake muttered looking around for answers.

"I don't know. But whoever that man was, it looks like becoming friends is no longer an option." Tomas replied grimly. "I just want to know who this Uncle Ichthyosis is."

"Let's not stick around to find out." Kalelor muttered and headed for the exit.

After quickly confirming that the situation was the same in all the large buildings in that area, Morning Star made their way across the cavern to a cluster of small buildings in the distance. They moved quickly and quietly, this time favouring stealth and speed.

As they neared the largest of the small buildings, they saw the man from before running inside. Curious, they approached stealthily and hearing voices from within, began to eavesdrop on the other side of the door.

"And.. *Sob!*.. She.. She.. *Sob!*.. She hit me!" cried the man from before.

"Intruders? They attacked you?" drawled a deathly voice.

Barker turned to Kalelor, looking grim. Kalelor nodded back. It was definitely a lich on the other side. Tension permeated the crouching adventurers as they realised the danger they were now in.

"Yes! How could she!? *Sob!*.. Uncle Ichthyosis, you must punish her for me!"

"It will be done master. This human female will prove useful to restarting the breeding program. She will be turned to paste after serving her purpose there. I will kill the non-female intruders directly."

"Good. Make them all suffer!"

Barker rolled his eyes and whispered to Kalelor,

"Should we take them both out here? A surprise attack might catch the lich unaware."

Kalelor nodded and signalled the others to get ready. Alfred stood ready to breach the door and generously offered to let Tomas take point when it came time to charge in. The man's voice inside the building continued to drift out.

"Will you help too, Uncle De…"

"Go!" Kalelor brought his hand down and Alfred smashed the door in with a shoulder charge.

Alfred moved to one side as Tomas rushed passed, charging towards the elder lich and hoping to engage it before it could cast any spells.

Jake charged into the building next and swore when he saw what was inside. The man from before was screaming in terror, crouching with his arms over his head. An elder lich was standing next to him glaring balefully at Tomas while casting a spell. But what had caused Jake to swear was the second elder lich that had appeared from an adjacent room.

 _Shit! Two elder liches! We're fucked!_

"[Summon Undead III]"

The first elder lich managed to cast his spell before Tomas got to him. A huge flesh zombie known as a Bloodmeat Hulk materialised from the ground in front to the lich, blocking Tomas' advance. It's head grazed the ceiling as it swiped at Tomas. Tomas cursed even as he managed to dodge backwards out of the way.

Jake looked over to the second lich who was casting a spell aimed at him. The situation had turned dire and they would probably have to retreat. Jake activated his martial art [Evasion].

"[Fireball]"

Hurling himself to the side so quickly he strained his back, Jake managed to dodge the second lich's fireball. He managed to turn his head away from the explosion behind him just before it's force knocked him to the ground. Surprised by the great force of the explosion, Jake turned to looked at the impact location and saw that the [Fireball] had hit a combustible tank. Fire had quickly started to spread throughout the building.

* * *

 _This is bad! What should I do?_

Upon noticing the second elder lich, Alfred started to make his way towards it. If they could close the distance between the liches quickly, things must still turn out OK. The second lich cast a [Fireball] at Jake who was to Alfred's side. Alfred didn't pay any attention to Jake's plight though, closing the distance was the only thing that mattered.

The lich turned its gaze from Jake to Alfred as he got closer. It began to cast a second spell and Alfred could tell he wouldn't make it in time.

 _Shit! Not the [Lightning] again!_

"[Summon Undead IV]"

Four skeleton warriors seemed to crawl up from nowhere as they moved to block Alfred's advance. Alfred breathed a sigh of relief as the [Lightning] didn't materialise, but quickly realised that this was worse.

Alfred swung his mace towards the first skeleton warrior, but, it blocked it easily. The second and third skeleton warriors slashed and stabbed at him, but, Alfred managed to block the stab and dodge the slash.

 _Goddammit!_

Alfred was completely tied up with these skeleton warriors and could no longer close the distance with the elder lich. This meant that he could soon expect powerful tier-3 magic spells to be cast at him. This was an incredibly dangerous situation.

"[Stone Wall]!"

Alfred heard Kalelor cast a spell and felt a huge rumbling below his feet. Suddenly the stone beneath his feet shot up, forming a wall between him and the second elder lich.

"Retreat! Retreat!" Kalelor yelled out.

 _Don't have to tell me twice!_ Alfred thought to himself as he turned around and ran for the exit.

* * *

Tomas was the last one to run out of the building. Barker quickly slammed the door shut behind him and Kalelor cast a magical lock on the door.

The building had turned into an inferno and Morning Star retreated a good distance away. Whatever had been in there, must have been highly flammable as the building was now a gigantic bonfire that lit up the surrounding cavern for hundreds of meters.

"Well that escalated quickly." Barker said casually.

"It sure did. We were lucky to escape that one. How did the fire start?" Tomas asked puzzled.

"A fireball hit something flammable." Jake answered, "Do you think the fire will kill them?"

"Did you want to wait around here to find out?" Alfred asked, "That fire will attract every undead within this cavern soon enough. Let's get out of here."

"Well this is a real shame." Kalelor lamented mournfully. "Probably the only treasure in this place is going up in flames over there."

"Don't be so greedy! This wasn't even our mission. It's better to leave empty-handed than not to leave at all!" Katrina replied angrily at Kalelor.

Kalelor looked at Katrina, who was glaring at him, in surprise.

 _Huh? Is she.. angry at me? What the hell did I do?! Women…_

"You're right of course.. Let's retreat for now. We'll head back to that fort and rest for the night before exploring the rest of this cavern tomorrow. I'm curious to see what's causing that evil aura in that section over there."

"You still want to go to the centre of that?" Alfred asked, shocked.

"Of course," Kalelor smiled. "There must be something of value here and after escaping three elder liches I'm curious to see what it is!"


	17. Chapter 17: The Skeleton King

**Part 2, Chapter 17: The Skeleton King**

 **[A/N: Some of you are getting confused. This tomb isn't Nazarick. It belonged to Zuranon, I hinted at this in Chapter 8.]**

After resting for several hours to recover their mana and stamina Morning Star headed out again. They cleared their way through the cavern cleansing the scattered undead they came across as they headed for the undead breeding grounds in the center of the cavern. As they drew nearer they felt the evil aura more keenly and cold sweat appeared on the back of their necks.

They continued on because it was often true that the more powerful a monster the greater the reward for defeating it. Kalelor urged the others on, unwilling to leave without receiving any benefits.

As they got closer they encountered stronger undead. These undead included, armoured skeletons, Zombies, Bloodmeat Hulks and Reavers. However, these undead were usually wandering the vast cavern aimlessly and in solitude. As such they were easily defeated by the six adventurers.

Eventually Barker spotted a powerful group of undead formed up in a large circle. Within this perimeter of undead was a vast and complex magical formation. In the centre of this formation was a huge, powerfully framed skeleton. It's eyes glowed crimson red and pale violet light pulsed from its bones. It's countenance was full of malice and it appeared to be the source of the evil aura they had been feeling.

"Hold up. Keep low and stay quiet. There's a large group of undead just ahead." Barker whispered. "Damn! Looks like there is another elder lich too."

"Another one!? I've never heard of so many gathered in one spot before." Kalelor said exasperated. "What else is there?"

"There are also seven armoured skeletons, two with bows, one with a spear, three with a sword and shield and one with a longsword. All of their weapons are glowing though. I would guess that they are all enchanted magic weapons."

"Seriously? They have enchanted weapons? That will be difficult to deal with. I'm worried that my defense won't withstand magic weapons for too long." Tomas said, looking concerned.

"There's one more. It's an undead monster I don't recognize. It looks like a skeleton but it's glowing with violet light. It appears to be unarmed, yet it's the source of an immensely evil and sinister aura." Barker said hurriedly as sheens of sweat started to appear on his forehead. "Just looking at it fills me with dread."

Barker crouched back down, joining the others behind a large outcrop of rock. They appeared anxious at Barker's description.

"I see. An unknown undead monster. This is risky. Was there anything else of note?" Kalelor asked.

"There was a large magical formation in the middle of the undead. The armoured skeletons were standing around it's perimeter. There appeared to be a dried-out corpse of a magic caster lying near the edge of the formation. There was also a large ornate chest to one side." Barker replied succinctly.

"A large chest!" Kalelor's eyes twinkled.

It was clear to both Kalelor and the rest of Morning Star, that the large chest contained valuable treasure. They could also tell from the magic equipment that the undead guarding it were the strongest undead they had come across. This situation immediately drew conflict within the group as each member balanced their greed with their risk tolerance.

"All that magic equipment!" Jake uttered, a greedy glint in his eyes, "I'm keen to see what the quality of that longsword is like."

"It looked pretty good." Barker answered. "The bows looked incredibly powerful as well. Forget about what might be in the chest, if we can just take the skeletons enchanted gear we'll be rich."

"Still, isn't this too much for us?" Tomas questioned, still looking concerned. "We almost got into trouble with the two elder liches before. Now there is another one and seven powerful skeleton warriors with magical weapons. Plus there is also a powerful unknown undead to throw into the mix. I think we might have to pass this one up."

"No, we can do it!" Kalelor insisted. "Here's the approach. Katrina and I will cast our most powerful magic at the elder lich to start things off. Jake get to it as quickly as possible and kill it. Barker, you prevent it from casting until he does. Tomas and Alfred you hold off the seven armoured skeletons until we finish off the lich. If that violet skeleton undead attacks you, just run away."

"Alright Barker, crunch the numbers for me."

"Uhhh.. yeah, gimme a sec.. I'm coming up with thirty-two point three three, repeating of course, percentage of survival." Barker responded after a moment.

"That's pretty good.." Kalelor started.

"Alright chums up! Let's do this! Alllfreeeeeeeeeeeeed Nozzzzzzzletooooffff!" Alfred suddenly roared and charged at the undead.

"Oh Gods, he just ran in!" Kalelor panicked.

"Save him!" Katrina cried.

"Shit! Stick to the plan!" Kalelor ran to launch his attack.

"[Rock Throw]!" Kalelor cast a spell that materialized a head-sized rock and sent it flying at high speeds towards the elder lich.

"[Holy Arrow]!" Katrina caster her holy spell a split second after.

The skeletons alerted by Alfred's suicidal roar started to move to block him. Fortunately this left the elder lich open to attack from range. The large rock that Kalelor had cast, came hurtling towards the lich and hit it square in it's right shoulder, shattering it. The golden-glowing, arrow-shaped divine particles pierced the lich's chest, staggering it and dealing a huge amount of damage to its negative energy reserves.

"Keep going, burst it down!"

...

* * *

...

"[Furious Charge]!"

Alfred came roaring into the first of the armoured skeletons using his shield and armoured plate to block the spear thrust. Using the momentum from his charge he knocked the skeleton's weapon wide and slammed his shoulder into one of the skeleton archers, knocking it to the floor. Swinging his mace in a powerful arc, Alfred smashed it towards a second skeleton, but was dismayed when it managed to block the attack with it's shield.

 _Hmm.. maybe this wasn't a good idea._

"Arr!"

The spear from before had been thrust at him a second time, this time finding a weak spot. The magically enchanted spear easily pierced the chainmail near Alfred's elbow, giving him a nasty cut and a shock of electricity that almost made him drop his weapon.

Alfred was in a tight spot. Surrounded by powerful undead with deadly magic weapons. This fight was testing the limits of his ability, as he dodged, blocked and grunted in pain.

"Idiot!"

Tomas yelled as he ran into the midst of the armoured skeletons and blocked an overhead chop from a longsword that was aimed at Alfred's back. Tomas quickly found himself in a state where his entire attention was devoted to blocking, parrying and dodging, as the armoured skeleton's pressed their attack onto Alfred and him.

Back to back, the two of them held up the armoured skeletons. They even managed to disable the skeleton archers.

...

* * *

...

Jake sprinted past the group of armoured skeletons currently engaged with Alfred and Tomas. Up ahead he could see his target. The elder lich was preparing a counter attack spell. It had already launched a [Fireball] in the direction of Kalelor and Katrina, causing them to seek cover back behind the boulder. Looking at Jake's charging form, it was preparing a similar spell to end him.

Jake could see it's sneering expression and feel the hatred it radiated for him. Gripping his longsword tightly, it was all he could do to keep on charging forward towards the terrifying undead magic caster.

 _Come on Barker! Don't let me down!_

 _..._

* * *

...

Barker was an arsehole. He freely admitted to that fact and liked to grief others for his own amusement. But Barker was also a professional. He would not allow his own personal hobbies to get in the way of his work. So Barker shot his arrow. It flew towards the lich just as the magical fire started to gather in it's hands. The blunt arrow smashed straight into the side of the lich's head, completely interrupting it's spell and staggering it.

Barker watched as Jake closed the distance to the lich before it could recover and engage it. He watched as Katrina started casting healing magic on Alfred. He watched as Kalelor offensive magic made it's way to the skeleton archer that had broken free of the melee. He also noted that the powerful undead in the centre of the magical formation hadn't moved.

After watching all this for a few moments, Barker started to make his way towards the ornate chest.

 _Well.. looks like they've got this all in hand. Might as well be the first to help myself to some treasure._

 _..._

* * *

...

Severely wounded, with his shield arm hanging limply from his side and his left leg limping, Alfred tiredly swung his mace towards the armoured skeleton head. It casually blocked it and stabbed him through the shoulder joint of his good arm. The magical sword easily piercing his armour.

"Arr!"

Alfred stumbled back a few steps and fell back in retreat. He saw Tomas, wounded in many places but still fighting strong, block the skeleton from finishing him.

 _Am I going to die here?_

Desperate, Alfred dug into his pouch for a healing potion. Digging around and coming up empty, he then remembered he had already used his last one not long ago.

 _Shit!_

Alfred looked around at the situation. Four of the armoured skeletons had been defeated. The two archers, the spear wielder and a sword and shield wielder. Jake had been engaged in a desperate battle with the lich, slowly chipping away at it's incredibly vitality.

Kalelor was casting [Magic Arrow] at the claymore wielding skeleton and Katrina was healing Tomas.

 _Wait.. Where the fuck is Barker?_

 _..._

* * *

...

Barker screwed up his face in concentration. The large ornate chest lay just outside the magical formation and was locked. He struggled with his lock-picks but couldn't find the latch. This lock was unlike anything he had ever seen before. After several long moments of fiddling around and getting absolutely nowhere, Barker gave up. It had become obvious that it was beyond his skill to open it and if he wanted to see what was inside he had to find the key.

Looking up and around, Barker spotted the powerful, violet undead in the middle of the magical formation. It appeared to be completely oblivious to the deadly struggle going on just outside the magical formation. It was completely unclothed and unarmed.

 _No.. What's that around it's neck?_

Barker noticed that the undead monster had a loop of black cord around it's neck and what appeared to be a key threaded through it.

 _That must be the key to the chest!_

Barker smiled smugly as he figured this out. He wouldn't try to retrieve the key himself though. The aura that the undead was giving off was just too terrifying for him to even think of approaching it.

Sighing in disappointment, Barker drew his longsword from his side and walked back to the others to rejoin the fight.

...

* * *

...

"Arrrrrr.. That feels soooooo good!"

Alfred said with a slight smile and closed eyes, as Katrina bathed him in the golden light of divine healing magic.

*Slap!*

"Owww!" Alfred cried out, stunned.

"Idiot! Don't enjoy this! Your stupidity and recklessness almost got us all killed!" Katrina admonished.

"I'm actually surprised things turned out so well to be honest." Kalelor said. "Alfred reckless charge actually distracted the elder lich and made the start of the fight easier."

"This loot we got from those skeletons is amazing!" Jake said excitedly, swinging around a magical longsword. "Look at how epic this longsword is! It looks like it's made out of orichalcum and it's even been enchanted with fire!"

"How did these skeletons come to have such powerful gear?" Tomas questioned as he inspected a powerful looking shield.

"Who knows.." said Barker, off to the side testing an enchanted bow. "But I'm glad they did."

"It's a pity the elder lich didn't have any powerful gear on it." Kalelor lamented.

"I saw a powerful looking magic staff just over there." Barker pointed to a staff laying next to an old corpse.

"Really?" Kalelor's eyes lit up as he started to head over to retrieve it.

"Wait!" Katrina called out. "What about that undead over there? Shouldn't we deal with it?"

"Yeah, it appears to have the key to that treasure chest." Barker added.

"Alright, it appears to be passive, so we'll rest for a bit before attempting to kill it." Kalelor replied as he stepped into the magical formation to retrieve the staff.

"Huh!"

As soon as he had stepped into the magical formation it's lines lit up with glowing violet light. The violet light seemed to stimulate the undead in the centre and it's head suddenly jerked in Kalelor's direction. As if noticing them for the first time, the undead gave an inhuman growl and started to walk steadily over to Kalelor. It's movements were slow and deliberate, yet fluid and elegant. From its movements it seemed that it held enormous power in each of its limbs.

 _Oh..Shit.._

Kalelor panicked and stood motionless watching it for a moment.

"Get out of the magical formation!" Alfred shouted.

His adventurer's experience kicked in and banished the momentary paralysis that the undead's revival had triggered. Measuring the distance to the undead who was still at least ten meters away from him and glancing at the powerful magic staff that was only a meter to his left, Kalelor made his decision. Moving quickly, he stooped down to retrieve the staff. He reasoned that the undead would only attack intruders inside the magical formation.

After he retrieved the staff a change came over the undead and it started to increase in speed. Kalelor happy with his prize, dashed out of the formation. He didn't stop running until he was behind Tomas, who had raised his shield defensively towards the undead monster.

The undead monster came up to the edge of the magical formation and stopped. It looked puzzled and growled menacingly.

"It probably can't leave that formation circle!" Jake said.

"Hopefully. I don't think we're ready to face it yet." Alfred said.

Although the group had been completely healed via Katrina's healing magic, they were still exhausted and had used a good portion of their MP and Stamina.

"We'll I think we've done enough for today, we can always come back tomorrow to tackle this one." Kalelor said happily looking at the powerful staff he now held in his hands.

All of a sudden the members of Morning Star heard an eerie noise and their eyes snapped to the violet skeleton at the edge of the magical formation. It's mouth was open and frightful apparitions were slowly being sucked into its being. Powerful undulations pulsed out of the undead monster and it suddenly forced one foot out of the formation circle.

"You're living.. You dare to LIVE!" a slow grating voice drifted from the skeleton and its crimson eyes flared up frightfully, instilling terror in the members of Morning Star.

"Shit! Let's retreat for now." Kalelor said nervously while backing away.

"Agreed. Go! I'll keep an eye on it." Tomas called out behind him as he started to back away from the powerful skeleton.

The other members of Morning Star turned around and started to hurry off.

Suddenly, an awful laugh that sent chills down the spines and froze the blood of the adventurers emanated from the skeleton.

"You will not escape. You are already dead." the skeleton drawled, and the members of Morning Star could swear they saw a vicious smile on it's expressionless jaw.

"Run!" Tomas yelled, still backing away.

The skeleton pushed off with its legs and accelerated at terrifying speeds towards Barker who was the furthest away from it. A small tremor could be felt as it did. Barker seeing the incoming Skeleton stopped and dived backwards behind Alfred.

"Protect me Alfred!" Barker pleaded shamelessly.

"[Fortress]!"

Alfred presented his shield and braced himself to block the skeleton as it came charging towards Barker. He even activated his defensive martial art before the impact, sensing the immense power behind the charge.

*Duuff!*

Even with the martial art, Alfred was blown back 5 meters, somersaulting as he bounced along the ground, his arm at an odd angle.

Tomas and the others looked on horrified at the power of the skeleton. It was beyond their expectations. It was more powerful than anything they had ever come across, and it was completed unclothed and unarmed.

"Heal Alfred! I'll distract it." Tomas called out bravely, charging towards the monster.

Slashing with his sword, Tomas managed to connect and cheered silently. That was, however, until he felt an odd vibration through his sword and he instinctively knew that this skeleton was completely immune to his attacks.

The skeleton seemed to give him an evil grin as it slowly turned around and lashed out with its arm. Tomas didn't even try to block it after witnessing what had become of Alfred and instead half parried the arm and half dodged it. Activating several defensive martial arts while frantically and desperately dodging and parrying, Tomas managed to evade any damage from the skeleton for several long crucial moments.

Jake looked desperately around at the horrifying scene.

Katrina had wasted no time and had already partially healed Alfred. Alfred was spitting blood and rolling his shoulder as he slowly stood back up.

Feeling an urge to contribute, Jake lined up a massive attack with his new longsword, aiming it at the back of the skeleton's legs. Hoping to immobilize the skeleton, Jake put all of his strength and power into the attack.

"HAR!"

*CLANG!*

Feeling an uncomfortable vibration up through his arms, Jake knew that his attack had barely done any damage. In fact the only damage he had managed to do was from the weapon's fire enchantment that seemed at least partially effective against the skeleton.

After his longsword rebounded ineffectively off the skeleton's thigh bone, Jake tried to dodge as the skeleton turned around and punched out with a fist. Still in the midst of the recoil from the failed strike, the skeleton landed a solid punch onto Jake's chest plate.

Jake coughed blood as he was blown back several meters by the force of the punch. A large dent had deformed his plate chest piece.

"Stay there! I'll heal you!" Katrina called out to him.

"Urghh.. It's too much for us! We have to retreat!" Jake called out desperately.

Seeing Jake and Alfred being blown back by the attacks of the violet skeleton, Kalelor was lost for words. Tomas was barely holding it off from destroying them all. They had to escape and run away as quickly as possible. Thinking quickly, Kalelor came up with a strategy.

"[Stone Trap]!"

The cavern floor beneath the undead opened up and the skeleton partially fell in, trapping its leg.

"Quick Run!" Kalelor yelled.

Retreating as full speed the members of Morning Star fled for their lives. The skeleton was struggling with its leg, trying to free it. When Morning Star had retreated about a hundred meters away from it, Kalelor looked over his shoulder and saw the skeleton finally rip his leg out of the ground, pulling up the surrounding rocks.

"It's free! Run! If it catches up, Alfred use your stun on it and then keep running!"

Using a variety of techniques and spells the members of Morning Star managed to run all the way to the fort at the start of the cavern. Kalelor cast [Stone Wall] at the entrance of the fort, and the others quickly picked up their gear before heading through the iron door at the back of the fort. Just as he closed the iron door, Kalelor saw the rock wall he had made shatter. Locking the door he turned to the others.

"Go! Don't stop! Keep running!"

*Bang!*

At the other end of the corridor they heard a loud crash. The skeleton was trying to smash through the door. By the huge noise, it could probably do it. Not waiting to find out Morning Star ran all the way back to the small cavern with 6 exits. They anxiously waited for Jake to cast the die and ran for the chosen exit without bothering to worry about the dangers. Luckily ( **A/N: i.e. plot armour** ) they chose the right exit and soon found themselves once more in the cold mountainous valley.

"Well fuck that." Jake said panting.

"Aye, that was a goddamn slog. Let's not go into any more hidden ruins again!" Alfred said between heaving breathes.

"Keep going! I can still feel it's aura approaching!" Katrina suddenly said.

"For Gods' sake!" Kalelor said, before hurrying down the path with the others.

...

* * *

...

They had headed south, hoping to put as much distance between violet skeleton and themselves as fast as possible. Only after they had exited the valley and had travelled several kilometers south did they stop.

"Have.. we.. lost it.. now?" Tomas said between heaving breaths.

The members of Morning Star were absolutely exhausted and were collapsed and panting on the ground. A run that far would exhaust even adventurers who had enhanced physiques and incredible endurance.

"Yeah.. I think it's still underground in the cavern." Katrina panted.

"Good!" Let's rest here for the night and decide what to do in the morning." Kalelor waved for them to rest.

"What the hell was that creature? It was way too strong to be just a regular skeleton." Jake asked.

"I don't know, I've never come across anything like it. Maybe it was the Skeleton King?" Tomas said puzzled.

"Skeleton King huh? That fits. It would make sense that a skeleton that powerful and intelligent would rule other skeletons. Let's report this new type of undead and this place to the Adventurer's Guild and the temples when we get back." Katrina said.

"Are you crazy!? That place was a treasure trove! We didn't even get to see what was in that chest! When we get stronger let's go back and try again." Kalelor suggested.

"No, I'm not keeping this a secret." Katrina said firmly. "Let's go back to the nearest city and get some proper orichalcum or adamantite-ranked adventurers to deal with that Skeleton King. We'll also get the temples to try and save those poor souls trapped down there and to cleanse that place of evil."

Seeing the determination in Katrina's eyes, Kalelor knew it was pointless to argue with her and gave up. Short of killing her, there was no way to force her to keep this a secret, and Kalelor wasn't prepared to lose their primary healer.

"Fine! We'll inform the guild and the temples. The nearest city from here by foot would have to be E-Rantel to the south. It'll take at least a two months to get there, however, as we no longer have our horses."

"Well.. At the very least, we managed to get ourselves some enchanted gear." Jake said optimistically, inspecting his new longsword.

"Yes," said Kalelor with a smile. He finally had a chance to look at his new staff and stroked it gently. It was incredibly intricate and Kalelor could feel immense power dwelling within it. This staff made the one he had brought from the Magician's Guild look as valuable as kindling. "We did manage to land ourselves a tiny profit this time."

...

* * *

...

A haggard and travel worn group of adventurers approached E-Rantel's main gate. Their blue capes were tattered and dirty. Their hair unkempt.

They had journeyed for the entire winter and halfway into the spring. They had crossed mountains and forests and battled bandits and trolls.

But.. they were not prepared.

 **A/N: That's the end of Part 2. Hope you enjoyed it! I'll be going on a hiatus now for at least a couple of months.**


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